Northrop F-20 Tigershark

Initially known as the F-5G and officially redesignated F-20 in November 1982, the Tigershark single-seat tactical fighter was evolved as a company-funded development of the basic F-5E, having an 80% increase in engine thrust and only 21% increase in empty weight. Powered by a single General Electric F404-GE-100 turbofan rated at 7711kg with afterburning, the F-20 had an armament of two 20mm cannon and could carry up to 3175kg of ordnance on five stations. Three prototypes of the F-20, each embodying progressive improvements, were flown, these entering flight test on 30 August 1982, 26 August 1983 and 12 May 1984. A fourth prototype in the proposed fully-operational configuration was under construction when, following the October 1986 decision that an upgraded F-16A was to succeed F-4 and F-106 as the USAF's air defence fighter, Northrop terminated further development of the F-20 and ceased marketing efforts.

NOYB, e-mail, 10.12.2024

Mahon MacRi

Not gonna happen, unless the AEW&C platform is down or your dogfighter is Stealthy, unfortunately.

The ability of a MiG-17 to lurk in the weeds while the 'F /A' -4 flies into it's dogfight range was always limited and they certainly didn't 'jump' much, though the MiG-19 and certainly MiG-21 did.

Even in Vietnam, it was far more common for us to see them coming (QRC-248 IFF interrogator on the EC-121 or Red Crown) and watch them pass down the formation at frozen-stick speeds, trying to scatter us before someone screamed and cursed as the MiG-21s we didn't see snapped up _through our 9-14,000ft altitude band_, fired a couple Atolls and then vanished back down into the clouds, never exiting burner.

This height band was determined, not by the MiG threat but by the SAM one and the cloud bands, above and below as the space to tally the rising missiles.

We needed time to beat the SAM threat as they came through the cloud floor and we had limits, for altitude (the F-105 was clapped out by 14,000ft, when loaded, the F-4 by 19,000ft), based on airframe performance and available G, due to wing and thrust loading.

This made us visible to their Tall King etc. early warning radars at quite a long distance (coming off the tanker orbits over Laos to be honest) and so the VPAF had no problem vectoring their fighters against us.

The difference of course is that none of the early B /C /D /E Phantoms had the PD radar of say the F-4J or certainly the F-14 /15. And so looking into clutter was not possible, never mind LDSD, firing a Sparrow down into the lolo interceptor threat.

Today, that would not be a problem and so, again absent stealth on the penetrating OCA jet, you're just not going to get close before either you put an AMRAAM through their canopy bow or they fire a lofted, 200km, S-400 shot which does the same for you.

What made the F-20 special was the fact that it's APG-67 radar could actually support both AIM-7 and AIM-120, in full lookdown, at a time when the APG-66 on the F-16A was able to do neither and was a 50hr MTBF pig besides.

Early block F-16s were MMH:FH nightmares, every bit as bad as the F-15A and while both rapidly grew out of that post-FSD ramp umbrella phase, what the F-20 did better was as much about sortie economics as absolute performance superiority. We could _match_ the F-16 at about half the cost per flying hour. Which meant that a customer could have more jets on his flightline or pay far less for the same capacity.

It was a wonderful jet. In many ways almost more than a man could handle with the ability to onset Gs very rapidly. But after about 1978, the ability to combine that nose-hose capability with ALASCA missiles was no longer completely ours alone (R-60M) and by ~1982 the Archer, with it's helmet driven HOBS to about 40`, was actually better than the AIM-9M.

We would have needed the AMRAAM (then about 9 years from service readiness) to match that threat and the DOD was certainly not going to release it to a competitive export fighter that threatened their F-16 volume buy economies of scale. AIM-7 on any lightweight fighter is something of an anchor, especially asymmetric, and good as the APG-67 was, it was not an APG-63V.

Appreciate the enthusiasm, just trying to give you a bit of balance.


FIGHTER	Virtual Aircraft Museum / USA / Northrop