taildragger said:
My understanding, not based on any inside knowledge, is that the F-5G/F-20 was to be an export fighter with less offensive capability than the F-16 or F-18. This was encouraged by the Carter administration, which was reluctant about arms sales anyway, but was probably particularly motivated by the need to arm Taiwan in a way that minimized upset to the newly recognized PRC. GD responded to the same requirement with the F-16/79 which probably would have been less attractive to small airforces just because it was so obviously a deliberately second-rate aircraft for allies that couldn't be trusted with the good stuff.
The F-20 was a bet on continuation of the Carter foreign policy. A bigger wing would have confered a greater turnrate but also increased the payload/range capability and so moved it out of the intended market niche. When the Reagan administation liberalized arms sales, that niche largely disappeared and the F-20 wound up in a competition with the F-16 for which it wasn't intended.
...This sums up part of a 1983 lecture we were given in NROTC on why the Carter Misadministration was such a clusterfrack where the US national defense and geopolitical force disposition was concerned. Almost point-for-point where the F-5G/F-20 was concerned, including the disparity between the Tigershark and the Falcon being due to the simple fact that they were never intended to be competitors.
...That being said, I've still always had a major admiration for the Tigershark, and was probably as disappointed as any other fan of this bird when it didn't sell. I still believe it would have been the perfect opportunity to arm our allies with what was essentially a new fighter without a) giving them used hand-me-downs or discards, and b) giving them something better than we had just in case some bunch of Islamic idiots seized power and decided to play stupid intelligence swapping games like the Iranians did with the F-15 parts to the Soviets.
...On a more personal note, I wish I still had a copy of a December 1982 issue of the unit's newsletter, where I'd mocked up a great fake ad for the Tigershark using a photo from
Air Farce magazine and some discarded 50's clipart from a Subgenius punk flyer I'd done for a local band. The ad presented the Tigershark as "The perfect family attack fighter, one that even Mom could fly!" Alas, the unit never kept copies of the newsletter in the library archives, and the few former midshipmen I keep in irregular touch with never kept theirs either. I may try to recreate that faux ad one day, because it got a lot of laughs at the time.