Tiger Shark fighter has been focused on, with strong overall performance and long-term ban on sales of key technologies!

DoD

虎鲨战机曾被重点关注，整体性能强大，关键技术长期禁售！_诺斯罗普

2021-03-07 06:00

As we all know, the third-generation fighters have entered the fiery development stage since the 1980s, and the F-20 "Tiger Shark" fighter can be described as a representative of its outstanding performance, leaving a deep impression on the world. It is understood that the "Tiger Shark" fighter is a light fighter project built by Northrop with the F-5 as a reference. It achieved its first flight in 1982, and its predecessor was an F-5E derivative model.

From the performance point of view, the "Tiger Shark" fighter has a good cost-effective advantage, adopts leading internal technologies such as microelectronics, and can undertake important functions such as ground strikes. In this context, Northrop is trying to expand overseas sales markets with the F-20 fighter as the focus.

Its predecessor, the F-5 series of fighters, also had a glorious history of service. For example, the introduction of models such as F5A and F-5E has attracted widespread attention from the outside world. In terms of sales, this series of fighters have been exported to more than 30 countries around the world, and they are still active in the air of many countries. Since the launch of the F-16 fighter, Northrop has launched the "Tiger Shark" fighter development project in order to further increase exports. It wasn't until 1982 that the F-20 series fighters finally produced their first fighters, but they failed to obtain effective orders in a short time. In this unfavorable environment, the "Tiger Shark" fighter also encountered a serious crisis, which damaged its image. In 1984, two fighter planes accidentally crashed during the mission and killed two people.

At the same time, the F-16 fighters quickly attacked and won a large number of orders in the international market. Since then, the U.S. military has adjusted the export structure of fighter jets, thus blocking the export channels of Tiger Shark fighter jets. In the eyes of the outside world, with the continued sales of F-15 and F-16 fighters at that time, the "Tiger Shark" fighters completely lost market space, so they were forced to terminate the project plan in 1986, which also declared Northrop. The company's investment particles were not collected.

Even so, the "Tiger Shark" fighter still occupies an important position in the eyes of the US military, and its key technologies have long been banned for sale.

F-20 Tigershark: Details