In article ,
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote:

"Chad Irby" wrote in message
. com...

That might not even come into play. Look at the F-20 Tigershark. Very
nice plane, flew as well as just about anything in the air at the time,
and had *big* advantages in maintenance (as low as one-third the cost of
the F-16 to support). In some fields (interception and scramble
flights), it was better than anything (from the time the pilot hit
"start" to 30,000 feet was about 2.5 minutes).

Nobody bought any.

This thread isn't about 'best'. It's about 'very clearly superior for it's
time'.

You can argue the F-20 was better or worse than the F-16, but it was not
very clearly superior.

For a smaller country with a limited budget, it certainly could be.
Maintenance costs were the big selling factor, and good time-to-scramble
was a nice point.

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