Originally Posted by
LowObservable
A million years ago in a galaxy far, far away, when Phoon was still "Eurofighter 2000" and in trouble at many levels, there was a plot to gap-fill A2A with recently modded and lightly used F-16A ADFs - to be followed by co-development of the delta-wing F-16 variant with the diverterless inlet and LO nozzle. It had gas for days and carried all weapons conformally or semi-conformally. BAE Systems were not happy bunnies, the USAF wanted to be all-stealth (how''s that working out for ya?), and the upper Pentagon levels saw it as a threat to the nascent JAST, later JSF. The avionics ended up in the Block 60.
Was this Michael Portillo?
Never heard of that development of the F-16 - who was planning this?
I always thought the F-16E/XL was by far the best version - apart from sustained turn it was an order of magnitude better than the standard machine.
Think the USAF missed a big trick not making this the standard buy.
Was the delta a development of the XL?