Dominate South Asia

These two weapons were useless to the Americans, so when Weinberg heard that Muhammad needed them, he agreed almost without hesitation.

Such weapons cannot be free aid. Anyway, the Afghan Free Government now has money. Mining and exporting ore, their government can already function normally, so let the Afghan Free Government buy them.

Muhammad certainly would not agree to buy at a high price. The two sides bargained and negotiated a suitable price.

After that, Muhammad made many requests for civilian use, such as advanced equipment needed in some chemical and metallurgical fields in Pakistan, such as ordering a batch of personal computers from IBM at a low price. These requests were all agreed by the United States. After all, it was a business transaction between the two sides, and American businessmen could make money from it.

The negotiations were very pleasant. When it ended, Weinberg spoke: "President Muhammad, your side is equipped with advanced fighters, and the number is already large. Now, you are still lacking a low-cost light fighter. We have a suitable fighter here. I hope you will be interested."

"What fighter?" Muhammad asked.

"F-20, Northrop's advanced fighter, if you are interested, I can accompany you to Northrop to see this advanced export fighter." Weinberg said.

F-20? Muhammad thought of the sad ending of this fighter in history, and couldn't help but sigh.

F-20 is a modification of the extremely popular F-5 fighter by Northrop. The US military is not interested in competing for the export market. Due to the replacement of the new APG-67 radar and F404 engine, the performance of this fighter has greatly improved compared with the F-5, but it still can't catch up with the F-16 fighter. During the development of the F-5, the F-16 began to be exported, squeezing out the export market of the F-5. As a result, none of this fighter was sold. In history, in 1986, this fighter stopped further development. The production line was dismantled. Since it was improved from the F-5, Northrop did not lose much money, only $100 million.

Although Muhammad was not interested, he was still very willing to contact Western airlines.

The next day, accompanied by US Secretary of Defense Weinberger, Muhammad came to Northrop Corporation.

Northrop Corporation was very happy about the arrival of Muhammad and others. Fred Oschla, the company's deputy general manager, led a team to greet them, and the company's general manager. Now he is running to Europe to promote their fighter.

At the company's airport, Muhammad watched the flight performance of this fighter.

The layout of a typical second-generation aircraft, slender body, side air intake, wing airfoil similar to F-16.

The fighter taxied on the runway and soon flew into the sky, performing various stunts.

"Our fighter. Equipped with a new avionics system, it has the ability to guide medium-range Sparrow air-to-air missiles. The combat performance is equivalent to 80% of the F-16, but the price is only half of theirs. It is very suitable for your air force equipment." Fred said to Muhammad.

Muhammad, wearing sunglasses, nodded: "Yes, if we didn't have F-16, we might consider ordering a batch."

This sentence. Fred was immediately shocked. It was F-16 again! The existence of F-16 is simply their nemesis. No matter which country they sell to, they face this problem.

When the project was first established. Northrop designed the YF-17 project to compete with the general YF-16. As a result, the US Air Force chose the general YF-16, and Northrop's project was about to die in the womb. Fortunately, the US Navy needed a new fighter and saved the project.

"What kind of fighter is that?" Muhammad's telescope found another fighter on the runway.

The layout of twin engines and twin vertical tails, the semicircular air intakes at the lower position on both sides, and the wing front end have wing strips. This fighter looks more streamlined.

"This is the F/A-18 fighter we developed for the Navy, and it has now begun to equip the Navy." Fred said.

Northrop's F-20 project was a complete failure, but the F-18 was very successful. Although its combat effectiveness was not as good as that of the F-14, it succeeded in killing the Tomcat fighter and became the main carrier-based aircraft of the US aircraft carrier.

Of course, Northrop later merged with Grumman to become Northrop-Grumman, and they were considered a family.

Muhammad certainly knew that no matter how the F-18 was improved, it could not be compared with the F-14. After the F-14 and Phoenix were retired, the first-level air defense interception circle of the US Navy's aircraft carrier formation at 800 nautical miles away actually no longer existed.

The reason why this fighter was successful was purely because of its low maintenance cost. Those guys in the US Congress knew how to hold up the US Navy's money all day long.

The project of this type of fighter was launched in 1978. As it already had the foundation of YF-17, the development of this fighter was very fast. Last year, it was equipped with the US Navy. Now these fighters on the runway are undergoing pre-factory testing. After there are no problems, they will fly to the US Naval base.

Seeing Mhamad's interest in this kind of fighter, Fred couldn't help but be disappointed. This is the latest aircraft of the US Navy and it must not be exported. In other words, Pakistan will not buy it from Northrop. Any fighter jet.

"Let's take a look at our F20 fighter. It uses the same engine as the F-18 and is very powerful." Fred said.

"I think your F-18 fighter plane is more powerful than the Tomcat fighter plane." Mhammad continued to think about it.

"Of course, this kind of fighter also has excellent air control and sea attack capabilities, and its maintenance cost is very low." Fred said.

Weinberg, who was on the side, was very excited. It seemed that the guys in the Navy were lying, saying that the F-14 had better performance than the F-18. The F-14 had already fallen behind. If the F-18 was used, To replace the F-14, the Navy can save a lot of money!

Hammad looked at Weinberger and continued to fool him. It would be nothing if he came anyway. He simply fooled the Americans into thinking that the F-14 was useless. It would be best if the F-14 was eliminated in the end!

"Well, this is not the case with the F-14. Now, our Air Force is most worried about early fracture of the wing box." Mhamad said.

In fact, this wing box is very strong. After the F-14 was retired, the wing boxes of many fighter jets have not yet reached the end of their service life.

"Our F20 has the same maintenance advantages as the F-18 and uses the same engine. It is very suitable for your air force." Fred still switched to this kind of fighter.

Hamad shook his head: "I'm sorry, if we equip a third type of fighter jet, it will cause a huge logistical burden. However, I have a suggestion."

suggestion? Fred perked up his ears and listened to what Mhamad continued to say.

"Your F20 fighter has been developed for such a long time and the subsystems have matured. However, we in Pakistan are now participating in Sweden's Gripen project. Their project still lacks suitable engines and radars. You are not as good as By exporting the F404 engine and APG-67 radar technology of the F20 fighter, some of the initial investment in development can be recovered," said Mhammad.

Pakistan has also invested some funds in Sweden's Gripen project, but it is not a joint development, but more like a learning type to help Pakistan cultivate its own scientific research team.

At the same time, Pakistan is also involved in the Active Sky Flash project to achieve breakthroughs in these subsystems.

Sweden's Gripen project historically used the RM12 engine improved from the F404, while the radar used the Ericsson/Ferrandi PS-05 radar. This radar is far less mature than the APG-67 radar. .

Now, Pakistan is pulling the strings. If this agreement is reached and engines and radars are installed on Gripen fighters, Pakistani scientific researchers will also learn more experience. You know, if it is sold to Sweden, the radar source code is definitely needed, and Sweden needs to integrate their own weapons system into it.

In later history, this APG67 radar was sold to the Taiwan Air Force and became the radar of the Ching-Kuo fighter aircraft. After being equipped, it far exceeded the radars equipped by the mainland's J-8 and Su-27. It can be seen that the radar of the United States What a huge advantage.

Hearing Mhammad's words, Fred thought, indeed, this kind of fighter aircraft has little sales now. Instead of stopping the development, it is better to sell the subsystems.

"If you are willing, we are willing to match up with you." Mhammad said: "Right now, the Gripen project is negotiating with Ericsson and plans to use the radar developed by Ericsson. You must act quickly."

"This... we still need approval from the Department of Defense and Congress." Fried said.

"The Department of Defense has no objection. This project was originally developed by Northrop Corporation," Weinberg said.

As for Congress, there will be no resistance from Congress, it is just a procedure.

Mhamad looked at Fred and knew that the export project might be carried out smoothly, and by then, Pakistani scientific researchers would also gain a lot.

After Hamad completed his inspection at Northrop Company, his next stop was his wife's natal home, Grumman Company. This time he brought his wife back. No matter what, he wanted to go back and have a look. (To be continued ~^~)