Dr J,
In answer to your question, IMHO the F-15 would seem to have been the logical choice, provided of course it could've been adapted to take a refuelling probe....and the engines changed to Speys! Probably would've needed a Martin-Baker seat too but I'm sure that wouldn't have been beyond the wit of man to sort out.
A Q
So you would have bollocksed up the F15 for what reason?!
Sod MB seats and replacing perfectly good engines, the F15E would have been the choice of champions!
But in all fairness, although it took a long time to be developed into what it was promised to be at the start, the F3 once equipped with JTIDS, some decent weapons and a developed Foxhunter was actually a pretty damn good bit of kit... OK, you're never going to win a knife-fight in a phonebox in it, but in terms of range, endurance, avionics, weapons (and not getting to the merge in the first place) it did surprise quite a few people
