AIM-54 Phoenix missile

Ed posted
The F-16 (actually the lightweight fighter competition)
was to build a replacement for the F-4 fleet. The F-15 air superiority
fighter did the air/air mission and from its inception the F-16/F-17
programs were designed for ground attack. The "complex avionics" of
the CCIP conventional weapons release system were incorporated in the
first production A models.

John Carrier elaborated:

I'll disagree on this point. The F-16/17 were designed to provide a cheaper
alternative and augment the expensive F-14/15 (Remember this buzz phrase:
"hi lo mix?"). They were originally designed as less complex air
superiority aircraft ... simple dogfighters ... with lesser radar and
(any?) BVR capability. The mud missions were designed in later.

I give the nod to John's post in strict terms of how John Boyd
proposed the LWF...*no* radar, heaters and gun...then limted radar,
heaters, gun.

But as Ed says, by the time the USAF had the funding for the winner of
the F-16/F-17 competition the *program* was for an F-4 replacement. GD
publicity photos of Full Scale Development (FSD) aircraft show the
array of surface attack weapons planned. And from the gitgo (Jan 1979)
the 16th TFTS at Hill was doing the air-to-mud thing. And the primary
DOC of all the F-4 units (in 1980) re-equipping to the Viper was
air-to-mud.

Juvat