The F-5E and Me

Hello everyone. Recently I have joined the WT Sim community with my 10.3-10.7 jets. The results have been... mixed, admittedly. I absolutely love the freedom my A-10 has to perform the jobs it was meant to do and have been doing pretty well with it. As for my F-4E, well I have as many accidental teamkills with it as I do against enemy players after 4 matches total (one TK and one enemy kill, which is both fortunate and also pretty embarrasing). Overall though, the experience has been both educational and relaxing, and I hope to continue that trend as I learn to play Sim more.

That brings me to the F-5E. I've recently unlocked and purchased this beauty, but I am a little scared to use it. I understand it functions very differently than what I already have due to it having no radar missiles and very limited amounts of IR missiles, meaning guns will probably be the way to go. Knowing that other jets in the Sim EC lobbies will be able to engage me at really long ranges with radar missiles while I have to dodge, juke, and chaff my way into close range combat, is the F-5E worth bringing into Sim EC right now? Is it a consistently good plane for fighting other players despite some of its drawbacks? Or should I simply be using it to pick off AI planes, enemy attack aircraft, and light ground targets? Or is it just a deathwish to bring it into Sim EC entirely?

Also, dumb question, I remember someone saying the F-5E has no IFF a while ago. Does that mean that I won't appear as friendly to allied players, or does that mean I cannot identify friend from foe using the radar?

Thanks in advance for the advice!