Both of these weapons are the chicken ribs of the Americans, so, hearing that Mhammad needs it, Weinberg agreed almost without hesitation.

This kind of weapon can't be gratuitous support, anyway, now that the Afghan Free Government has money, mining mines and exporting ores, their government has been able to operate normally, so simply let the Afghan Free Government buy it with money.

Of course, Mhammad would not agree to buy at a high price, and the two sides bargained and negotiated a suitable price.

After that, Mhammad made many requests for civilian use, such as some advanced equipment needed in the chemical and metallurgical fields in Pakistan, such as ordering a batch of personal computers from IBM at a low price, and these requests were all agreed to by the United States.

The negotiations went very happily, and when it was over, Weinberg spoke: "President Mhammad, you are equipped with advanced fighters, the number is already very large, and now, you still lack a low-cost light fighter, we have a suitable fighter here, I hope you will be interested." ”

"What warplane?" Mhammad asked.

"F-20, Northrop's advanced fighter, if you are interested, I can accompany you to Northrop to see this advanced export fighter." Weinberg said.

F-20？ Mhammad couldn't help but sigh when he remembered the sad end of such a fighter in history.

The F-20 was modified from Northrop's extremely best-selling F-5 fighter jet, and the U.S. military was not interested in competing for export markets, and the performance of this fighter was much better than that of the F-5 due to the replacement of the new APG-67 radar and F404 engines, but. Still can't catch up with the F-16 fighter, and in the process of developing the F-5, the F-16 began to be exported, squeezing the F-5 export market, and as a result, none of this fighter was sold. In history, in 86 years, this fighter stopped continuing to develop, the production line was dismantled, because it was improved on the F-5, Northrop did not lose much money, only 100 million dollars.

Although Mhammad is not interested, he has reached out to Western airlines. Mhammad is still very willing.

The next day, accompanied by US Secretary of Defense Weinberg, Mhammad came to Northrop.

Northrop was very happy about the arrival of Mhammad and others, and the company's deputy general manager, Fred Oschla, led a team to greet him, and the company's general manager is now running to Europe. Sell this fighter of theirs and go.

At the company's airfield, Mhammad watched a flight show of such a fighter.

Typical layout of a second-generation aircraft. The slender build, side air intakes, wing airfoil are similar to those of the F-16.

The fighter slid down the runway and soon took to the skies to perform various aerobts.

"Our fighter has been equipped with a new avionics system. With the ability to guide medium-range Sparrow air-to-air missiles, the combat performance is equivalent to 80 percent of that of the F-16, but the price is only half of theirs, which is very suitable for your air force equipment. Fred said to Mhammad.

Mhammad, who was wearing sunglasses, nodded: "Yes." If we don't have the F-16 equipped, maybe we'll consider ordering a batch. ”

This sentence immediately shocked Fred's heart, it was F-16 again! The existence of the F-16 is simply their nemesis, no matter which country they sell to, they are facing this problem.

At the time of the project, Northrop designed the YF-17 project to compete with GM's YF-16, and as a result, the US Air Force chose GM's YF-16, and Northrop's project was about to be stillborn, but fortunately, the US Navy needed a new fighter to save the project.

"What kind of fighter is that?" Mhammad's telescope, another warplane was spotted on the runway.

The layout of the twin engines and the double vertical tail, the semicircular air intakes in the lower positions on both sides, and the edge strip wings at the front of the wing, this fighter looks more fluid on the outside.

"This is the F/A-18 fighter we developed for the Navy, and now we have begun to equip the Navy." Fred said.

Northrop's F-20 project is a complete failure, however, this F-18 is infinitely beautiful, obviously inferior to the F-14 in combat effectiveness, but in later generations, it successfully forced the Tomcat fighter to death and became the main carrier-based aircraft of the United States aircraft carrier.

Of course, later Northrop merged with Grumman to become Northrop Grumman, which can be regarded as a family.

Of course, Mhammad knew that no matter how improved the F-18 was, it would not be able to compare with the F-14, and when the F-14 and the Immortal Bird were retired, the first layer of the air defense interception circle owned by the US Navy aircraft carrier group at a distance of 800 nautical miles was actually completely gone.

The reason why this fighter will succeed is purely because of the low maintenance costs, and those guys in the US Congress know all day long that they are stuck with the money of the US Navy.

This fighter was established in 78 years, because there is already a YF-17 foundation, the development of this fighter is very fast, in last year, it has been equipped with the United States Navy, and now these fighters on the runway are tested before leaving the factory, and after no problem at all, they flew to the US Navy base.

Seeing that Mhammad was interested in this kind of fighter, Fred couldn't help but be disappointed, this is the latest aircraft of the US Navy, and it must not be exported, that is, Pakistan will not buy any fighters from Northrop.

"Let's take a look at our F20 fighter, which uses the same engine as the F-18 and is powerful." Fred said.

"I think your F-18 fighter is more powerful than the Tomcat fighter." Mhammad continued to obsess.

"Of course, this fighter also has excellent air supremacy and sea attack capabilities, and its maintenance cost is very low." Fred said.

Weinberg on the side listened very excitedly, it seems that those guys in the Navy are lying, saying that the F-14 is better than the F-18, the F-14 has long been behind, if the F-18 is used to replace the F-14, the Navy can save a lot of money!

Mhammad looked at Weinberg on the side, and continued to flicker, anyway, there was nothing to do, so he simply fooled the Americans into thinking that the F-14 was useless, and it would be best if the F-14 was eliminated in the end!

"Well, this is not the case with the F-14, and now, our Air Force, the most worrying thing is the early breakage of the wing box." Mhammad said.

In fact, this wing box is very strong, when the F-14 is retired, the wing box of many fighters has not yet reached the end of its service life.

"Our F20, with the same maintenance advantages as the F-18 and the same engines, is a perfect fit for your Air Force." Fred switched to this fighter anyway.

Mhammad shook his head: "I'm sorry, but if we equip a third type of fighter plane, it will cause a huge logistical burden. However, I have a built-in yì. ”

建yì? Fred pricked up his ears and listened to what Mhammad continued.

"Your F20 fighter has been developed for so long, and the subsystems have matured, and we in Pakistan are now participating in Sweden's Gripen project, and their project still lacks suitable engines and radars, so you might as well export the F404 engine of the F20 fighter and the APG-67 radar technology, so that the cost of initial research and development can be recovered." Mhammad said.

Pakistan has also invested part of the Gripen project in Sweden, but it is not a joint development, but more like a learning type to help Pakistan cultivate its own scientific research team.

At the same time, Pakistan is also involved in the active Sky Flash project in order to achieve a breakthrough on these subsystems.

Historically, Sweden's Gripen project uses the RM12 engine improved from the F404, while the radar uses the Ericsson/Ferrendi PS-05 radar, which is far less mature than the APG-67 radar.

Now, Pakistan is pulling the strings, and if this agreement is reached to install the engine and radar on the Gripen fighter, Pakistani researchers will also learn more experience. You know, if it is sold to Sweden, it definitely needs the radar source code, and Sweden wants to integrate their own weapon system into it.

In the history of later generations, this APG67 radar was sold to the Taiwan Air Force and became the radar of the Jingguo fighter, and after being equipped, it far exceeded the radar equipped with the mainland's Jian-8 and Su-27, which shows how huge the radar advantage of the United States is.

Hearing Mhammad's words, Fred thought to himself, indeed, this kind of fighter has no market now, rather than just stop the development, it is better to sell the subsystems in it.

"If you want to, we're willing to connect you." "Now, the Gripen project is in talks with Ericsson to use the radar developed by Ericsson, and you need to move quickly," Mhammad said. ”

"This... We also need the approval of the Department of Defense and Congress. Fred said.

"The Ministry of Defense has no opinion, this project was originally developed by Northrop itself." Weinberg said.

As for Congress, there will be no resistance from Congress, it will be just a procedure.

Mhammad looked at Fred and knew that the export of this project might be carried out smoothly, and at that time, Pakistani researchers would also gain a lot.

After Mhammad finished his inspection at Northrop, his next stop was his wife's maiden home, Grumman, who came back with his wife this time, and in any case, he wanted to go back to see it. (To be continued......)