F-20 potential in high-low configuration.

[tomo pauk]

IMHO Mig-23 with upgraded avionics would be just as good as Soviet F-20,considering what they did with Mig-29.
Mig-23 itself wasn't that expensive either. I also think Mig-23P and MLD is superior to F-20.

Note that I've said that MiG's F-20 to be produced instead of MiG-29.
Thus the 'F-20' gets the avionics & missiles that MiG-29 would've gotten - IRST, radar that can actually do look-down shoot-down, AA-10 and AA-12, HMCS. It will have far better range than MiG-29 (that was bad in this regard), much cheaper than either MiG-23 or -29 (lighter & cheaper construction, no swing-wing, just one engine) to buy and operate. Later is very important for countries wanting to change their old MiG-21s and earlier fighters with a new aircraft one-for-one without breaking the bank, that is borderline impossible with MiG-29.
It can mean that, for example, India licence produces it, and perhaps Romania and Yugoslavia. Later in 1990s/2000s, the upgrades (be it from the original manufacture or by 3rd party) are money well spent.

Before all that, MiG company should've made their 'Mirage F-1' instead of the MiG-23.

 

[Nodeo-Franvier]

F-14 is expensive, hard to maintain, and spending crazy amount of fuel. Clearly it is not a good aircraft for iran(at least nowdays.) F-20 is fit for them.
But you know, Northrop made a shitty airshow plan and it destroyed whole business.

But Iran needed flying radar stations to cover the gap.

 

[davparlr]

The airshow crashes didn't help but I don't think the ending would be different had they not occurred.

 

[tomo pauk]

F-5E at Sukhoi:

 

[FLYBOYJ]

F-5E at Sukhoi:

View attachment 612767

Did they get the aircraft from Iran or Vietnam?

 

[tomo pauk]

Did they get the aircraft from Iran or Vietnam?

From Vietnam, together with A-37B, in 1976. Sukhoi got them in 1977.
Some of the features were taken from F-5 into the Su-27 development (that was already in it's 7th year by 1977), like way how the engine is attached to the fuselage, cockpit lights and panels layout, details of undercarriage and of hydraulic system.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

The F-20 would have been a natural for Iran, given their experience with the F-5, had it not been for the political break. NATO countries were going to be steered to the F-16 anyway once the USAF made its procurement decision.

The -20 was a good airplane that fell between two stools, is the way I see it.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

From Vietnam, together with A-37B, in 1976. Sukhoi got them in 1977.
Some of the features were taken from F-5 into the Su-27 development (that was already in it's 7th year by 1977), like way how the engine is attached to the fuselage, cockpit lights and panels layout, details of undercarriage and of hydraulic system.

Very Interesting. I've mentioned on here a few times that I worked on F-5s in Botswana. These were ex Canadian birds and were in great shape. The aircraft is really simple to work on and I remember sitting in the cockpit and was impressed how simple the basic instruments were. If I remember these CF-5s had a similar avionics suite as in the CF-18.

During this period (around 2001) I was starting to work on the L29 and in some respects I found the F-5 similar in layout and simplicity.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Buying them instead of the F-14 would probably have made more sense. While the F-14 was a great aircraft, it was also not easy to fly or maintain.

To their credit the Iranians have managed to keep "some" F-14s aloft.

 

[GrauGeist]

Iranian F-14s did very well against Iraqi (Soviet) aircraft during the Iran-Iraq war and even produced the highest scoring F-14 ace ever (Jalil Zandi).