Originally Posted by
switch_on_lofty
I think that if you got a small group of pilots, engineers and designers together in a country with few barriers to testing and the willingness to certify aircraft on the mil register etc. then a lot could be achieved for a lot less than $12million a piece.
Pick some sort of light aircraft and start fitting sensors and weapons.
Question is what do you want to achieve? CAS with no air threat pretty much anything would do, maybe a UAV would be better otherwise DAS adds a fair bit (but is cheaper than buying a new plane and training a new pilot).
If you want to start pulling g and beating something else in a A-A fight then I think that it would start to get expensive e.g alpha jet, L-59 etc.
Who wants to buy them though? - a friend back from Africa said
"you can't get a big kickback on a cheap contract."
Google 'Luscombe P3 Rattler'