The unit was originally formed as the 425th Night Fighter Squadron in 1943. After training in the United States, it was deployed to Ninth Air Force in England in the spring of 1944, prior to the D-Day landings in France. During the run-up to D-Day, the squadron trained with Royal Air Force night fighter units against Luftwaffe raiders who intruded the night skies over England. After the landings in France, the mission of the squadron became the air defense of Allied liberated territory. During the Battle of the Bulge, it also flew day and night interdiction missions against enemy troop movements, brides and other targets of opportunity. It was inactivated in 1947.
The squadron was re-activated in 1969 as an F-5 "Freedom Fighter" training squadron for the South Vietnamese Air Force pilots for transition training. After the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War, it continued performed training of pilots from friendly nations who purchased the F-5E "Tiger II" as part of the United States Foreign Military Sales program. It was inactivated in 1989 when sales of the F-5 were ended.
Currently, the 425 FS's mission is to provide advanced weapons and tactics continuation training for the RSAF pilots, weapon systems officers and maintenance personnel. RSAF aircrew and maintenance personnel are assigned to the 425 FS for two years, during which they receive advanced tactics training, participate in Red Flag exercise, shoot live missiles at Combat Archer, and deploy to locations throughout the United States to participate in composite operations and dissimilar air combat exercises.
The tailband consists of black with red trim and red lion heads in a row (as shown in the picture above). The lion head is in the same form that is in the RSAF insignia. The tail code is the standard "LF" seen at Luke AFB but the country insignia is either RSAF or USAF depending on who owns the aircraft."A terrific patch set to have your 425th Fighter Squadron "Black Widows," Republic of Singapore Air Force, F-16 "Fighting Falcon - Viper," Peace Carvin II or international Air Force patch collection!
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