WI: F-20 sold to F-5 users

The F-20 was supposed to be the successor to the F-5E Tiger II. And it could've been one of the USAF's frontline tactical aircraft. But the F-16 sidelined the F-20 and, w/o potential customers, the aircraft program was later scrapped.

What if Northrop decided on different approach? Instead of (possibly) competing with the F-16 for sales, Northrop offered (and later, possibly sold) the F-20 exclusively to existing users of the F-5E, or even the older F-5A?
 
The F-20 was supposed to be the successor to the F-5E Tiger II. And it could've been one of the USAF's frontline tactical aircraft. But the F-16 sidelined the F-20 and, w/o potential customers, the aircraft program was later scrapped.

What if Northrop decided on different approach? Instead of (possibly) competing with the F-16 for sales, Northrop offered (and later, possibly sold) the F-20 exclusively to existing users of the F-5E, or even the older F-5A?

Said former F-5A customers suddenly have much more secure airspace. The F-5E was already superior to front line aircraft like the Mirage III - RAAF pilots who flew against F-5E's in Malaysia during wargames admitted that, though it was not publicised at the time.

Beyond that a quick overview of the F-20's performance compared to competitors might help. Yes, slower than the F-14/15/16 but that was a Northrop design philosophy, they thought sacrificing some top end speed for improved mid-range performance was what real world combat showed was needed.

I remember Chuck Yeager - who was connected to the program - commenting that the F-20 had a smaller bomb load than some but with smart bombs coming on it had all that was needed. What was it's range like, and how likely were potential users to be able to get PGM's? How good was the radar and ECM suite compared to rivals/adversary aircraft?

Sorry to hit you with the questions.
 
Said former F-5A customers suddenly have much more secure airspace. The F-5E was already superior to front line aircraft like the Mirage III - RAAF pilots who flew against F-5E's in Malaysia during wargames admitted that, though it was not publicised at the time....snip...

Really? That must have been late in the Mirage's service life, late 70s or early 80s.
 
What if Northrop decided on different approach? Instead of (possibly) competing with the F-16 for sales, Northrop offered (and later, possibly sold) the F-20 exclusively to existing users of the F-5E, or even the older F-5A?

They pretty much tried to IIRC, including setting up local production lines in customer countries. The problem was F-5 operators were either happy with their F-5's, or being offered F-16's by the same state department that was the only agency for export sales of the F-20. More F-16's sold also drove down the unit price for the USAF, so there was something of a conflict of interest when it came to promoting the F-20.
 
Really? That must have been late in the Mirage's service life, late 70s or early 80s.

Yes.

There was a big competition to replace them with the SAAB Viggen and so on in contention, and it was cancelled to save money. That left us with the things for a while before another competition was held ten years or so latter. The RAAF was certainly still using them during the Falklands War, because news crews were interviewing the pilots about the Argentinian pilots going up against the Harrier in a basically the same plane.

Well it was basically the same plane to the news crews anyway.
 
The Hornets reach IOC in about 1986, the last Mirages left service in 1988.

The Mirage, even after 12 years service should have been considerably faster than the F5E but wouldn't have had the manoeuvrability.
 
How about if the F-20 was the one offered under an updated version of the Military Assistance Programme?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Yes.

There was a big competition to replace them with the SAAB Viggen and so on in contention, and it was cancelled to save money. That left us with the things for a while before another competition was held ten years or so latter. The RAAF was certainly still using them during the Falklands War, because news crews were interviewing the pilots about the Argentinian pilots going up against the Harrier in a basically the same plane.

Well it was basically the same plane to the news crews anyway.


The last RAAF Mirages were retired in 1988 or so. One of the Sea Harrier pilots in the conflict had flown with the RNZAF previously, and had thus flown the A-4 and against the Mirage III before meeting them in battle.
 
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