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Old 06-03-2019, 09:20 PM
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StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
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As a complete aside, at one point a proposal was made for the RAAF to have a short-range point-defence fighter and a longer ranged interceptor-fighter.
The F/A-18 was already in RAAF service and would be the long-range interceptor and the proponents suggested the F-20 for the point-defence role.
The idea never progressed beyond paper because either the government or the air force (I can't recall exactly but it was one or the other) didn't want another aircraft in the stream but more importantly was that at the time (sometime in the late 1980s), the money was not likely to be forthcoming for extra fighter squadrons - especially if they were operating a different type of aircraft.

But in the T2k context, if you wanted to mess around with TOEs, if you wanted to have the F-20 in game, then perhaps an Australian purchase might be enough to get the production line started?
If I remember, the proposal called for a minimum of two and preferably about five point-defence squadrons. Five was never going to happen but two would have been a reasonable level with Flights detached to the various airfields where point-defence was needed.
So you would be looking at, at least two squadrons worth of the F-20 for the RAAF if you want to go with the idea. Again this was in the late 1980s so it would be before a version 2 timeline but maybe not quite soon enough for a version 1 timeline.
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