F-20 "Tiger Shark" is the last fighter of the F-5 family of the American company Northrop, the original number was F-5G, which is an upgraded version of the F-5, but, in addition to the airframe, it has undergone large-scale modifications, so, it was given a new number: F20, which is mainly used for export sales, and those countries that have bought F-5 fighters are potential customers of the F-20.

Compared with the F-5 fighter, the biggest change is the addition of the F404 turbofan engine of the same level as the F/A-18. Although it has been changed to a single engine, it is more powerful than the original twin engine and is very fuel-efficient. Due to the change of the engine, the air intake curve is different, so the air intake tract and air intake port have been redesigned, and the rear fuselage is also different from the previous one.

In order to give this export fighter a powerful surname, Northrop changed to Raytheon's AN/APG-67, which is more powerful than the F-16 fighter, in addition to providing common air-to-air and air-to-ground modes, but also makes the F-20 have the ability to launch medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missiles, which is a considerable improvement.

However, the small airframe limits the development of the F-20, and no matter how it is improved, it is only a light fighter.

Moreover, the prospects for the F-20, compared to its prototype F-5, are very unpromising.

In the sixties and seventies, the main fighter of the US Navy and Air Force was the F-4 Phantom fighter, but the price and the cost of logistics and maintenance were very high, which made it difficult for many potential customers to accept, that is, even Iran, which had deep pockets, purchased a batch of F-5 as a supplement while purchasing the F-4, not to mention other countries. Therefore, the United States decided to develop a light fighter for export to the allies, and Northrop launched the F-5A/B Freedom Fighter fighter based on the T-38 advanced trainer, and then improved avionics and strengthened air combat capabilities, and launched the F-5E/F fighter, which was a great success, and the sales volume was only comparable to the Soviet MiG-21.

Northrop was greatly encouraged, so it went on to improve, using the advanced F404 engine, combined with the new pulse Doppler radar, to improve the F20.

However, this model is not supported by the state, that is, all the funds are raised by Northrop itself, and a total of 1.2 billion dollars have been invested, which is definitely not a small amount.

I wanted to make another payment, but as a result, the plane was developed, and Northrop held a big cake in its hand, but no one came to blow out the candles.

At this time, the U.S. Air Force has been equipped with F-15 and F-16 fighters, forming a high-low match, and is unwilling to equip a fighter that is even lower than F-16, while foreign customers, NATO and Israel, have all replaced F-16 and are not interested in F-20, and those countries that do not have many dollars in their pockets are not equipped with the US Air Force, and they can't muster the heart to be the first to eat crabs.

In this way, the prospects of the F-20 suddenly became pessimistic, and Northrop was counting on a flood of orders, but now, on the contrary, it has to go out and sell it on its own.

Therefore, Northrop set up several teams to go to various places to sell, one team to Western European countries, one team to East Asia, and one team to the Middle East.

Among them, the Middle East is probably the largest, so Fred Oschla, the company's deputy general manager with a technical background, personally put on a battle and hoped to gain in the Middle East.

His deputy, the head of the design department, is Dr. Kashin, who has been a senior engineer since joining the company in 1973.

"Manager, we don't seem to be very popular in Kuwait this time." In a private room at the Kuwait International Hotel, Kashin said in a very disappointed mood.

"Yes, the Kuwaiti Air Force, equipped with the latest type, is also the Mirage F1, which is not as powerful as our fighter at all, I really don't know what they are thinking!" Fred said.

"They're probably waiting for f16 or f15!" "Now we've improved the Tiger Shark's last name, it's on par with the F16, and it's cheaper than the F16, but these guys don't like our planes at all." ”

Before I came, I had great hopes that Kuwait and the United States had very close relations, so there was no problem with selling this fighter to Kuwait, but I didn't expect that these rich people who were full of dollars in their pockets didn't look down on their own fighters at all, and they only had one sentence: When the US Air Force is equipped, let's think about it!

Nonsense, if it is really the US Air Force that has a lot of equipment, do you still use your own hard words to persuade you? Orders have already been pouring in for a long time.

This is also a mistake of the company: it is completely the company's own development of various surname energy standards, its own decision-making related data, completely free from the supervision of the Air Force, especially the reliable surname and maintenance surname in the first place, the surname can be put in the second place, so the Air Force is skeptical of the company's F-20 fighter jets, besides, with F-15 and F-16, the Air Force simply does not look down on this surname can be slightly inferior to the F-16 fighter.

"We'll lobby the Air Force commander tomorrow, and if they're not interested, we'll have to go to Baghdad." Fred said.

Speaking of Baghdad, Kashin became interested: "Will Saddam be interested in fighters like ours?" You know, he's armed with Soviet-style fighters! ”

"Now, Baghdad is at war with Tehran, which is in the interests of our Americans, since Khomeini came to power, it has brought too much shame to our United States, so President Reagan has ordered that our fighter can be sold to Baghdad, not only the Air Force, but also many weapons of the Army are planned to be provided to Baghdad." Fred said.

"So, will we be competing with GM's F-16s again?" Kashin asked.

"This will not be, you know, at the top level, although Iraq is expected to defeat Khomeini, however, it is absolutely not allowed to appear a regional power, you know, Saddam's ambitions, in fact, are not small, moreover, those Jews in the country, the Iraqis knocked out the formation of Israel's bombing nuclear reactors, very angry, absolutely not allowed to be equipped with the same fighter jets as Israel, exported to hostile Iraq, even if it is a shrunken F16 equipped with an old J79 turbojet engine, Even if it's our F20, if the negotiation is successful, those people will definitely come out and shout. Fred said. However, there are plenty of ways for companies to get rid of the influence of those people. Our fighters were originally intended for export, and if they could not be exported, the company would suffer huge losses. ”

"Our only opponent is probably France's Mirage 2000, however, their kind of fighter will take a few years to be put into production, and their Mirage F1 is not suitable for water and soil in the Middle East, it is not as good as our fighter, the reliability surname is very high, and it is definitely suitable for the sky here."

Kashin's heart was full of anticipation.

ps: Thank you Fascist for the reward and reminder ticket, the unit has been very strict recently, and the consequences of skipping work without permission are terrible, plus the recent hot weather, this brain began to forget a little, yesterday only updated one chapter, the day before yesterday belonged to the plus more, yesterday should have been two more, alas, East China Zhixiong never thought of owing chapters, so, it will be made up today, and there is another chapter in the evening.

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