The Fascinating Story of How Yemen Got F-5E Tiger II Fighters shows us that it is inextricably tied to the Second Yemenite War of March 1979.
The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), commonly known as North Yemen, had an air force that flew Soviet-supplied MiG-17 and MiG-21 aircraft during the Cold War. But starting in 1979, the nation also flew Northrop's F-5E Tiger II light fighter aircraft, which made their debut in 1972. It's a truly bizarre tale of how Yemen came to own its little fleet of American F-5E aircraft.
The purchase of the aforementioned aircraft by the nation was inextricably tied to the Second Yemenite War of March 1979. While South Yemen was formally a member of the British Empire beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, North Yemen was historically a part of the old Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although Yemen's roots go back to 1918, the United States only officially recognized Northern Yemen (also known as Yemen) as ...