Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

On the tarmac of IAI, a uniquely designed fighter jet appeared before everyone's eyes.

Its nose was sharp, with horizontal strakes near the tip. The fuselage gradually thickened towards the rear, reaching its maximum diameter at the tail. The overall shape resembled a dart. Large delta wings were mounted on the fuselage, and forward of the main wings, above the pointed air intakes, were a pair of canards. This configuration clearly belonged to the canard aerodynamic layout.

"What you see is our Kfir fighter jet," Horev enthusiastically introduced to the crowd. "It is a single-engine, single-seat multirole fighter jet developed by ourselves. Its maximum takeoff weight reaches 16.5 tons, its maximum flight speed is Mach 2.3, its maximum range is 1100 kilometers, and its maximum external load is 6 tons. The performance of this fighter jet far surpasses your existing MiG-21s, especially since we can install advanced pulse-Doppler radar in its nose."

After the Third Middle East War, Israel, suffering from arms embargoes during the war, decided to produce its own fighter jets. At that time, they mobilized their Mossad agency to directly swap the blueprints from the Swiss Sulzer aircraft manufacturing company, bringing back the complete set of Mirage 5 production drawings, and then modifying it themselves: installing canards, changing to a J79 engine, and replacing it with domestic avionics. The Kfir fighter jet was born in this way.

Qin Yang's words clearly had the purpose of provoking the other party.

Hearing Qin Yang's words, Horev said frankly: "Yes, it does look very similar, but our fighter jet's combat effectiveness is a level higher than the Mirage 5. It is the most suitable choice for you. Would you like to take a look?"

"This canard layout is indeed very advanced," Qin Yang nodded and began to show off: "The canard layout is also called the 'pitch-up' layout. As long as the canard rotates a little, it can directly lift the nose! The Python-3 missile's maximum off-boresight angle is only thirty degrees, so the nose needs to quickly point to the target. The canard layout inherently has an advantage over the conventional layout. Mr. Horev, am I right?"

Horev's expression was a little awkward: "Mr. Qin, canards are divided into two types, fixed and movable. Ours is fixed."

Although the Kfir fighter jet has canards in front of the wings, they cannot move and cannot control the fighter jet. Their existence is only to generate vortices for the delta wings behind.

"Fixed? What's the use of that? It can only generate a little vortex. So the canards are just for show," Qin Yang continued to nitpick: "Since this aircraft is the most advanced, it should be using a turbofan engine, right? It should be very fuel-efficient, so how come the maximum range is only over a thousand kilometers? Our J-7 fighter jet can also fly that far."

"Horev, why don't you take our guests to see the Lavi fighter jet? Isn't your full-scale model ready?" Natalie interjected. She had already seen that the Easterners didn't like the Kfir fighter jet at all, and it would be a waste of time to continue promoting it here.

Horev was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, let's go see our Lavi fighter jet. This is an advanced fighter jet we are currently developing. Currently, we have just built a wooden model. We will be able to build the first prototype next year. This is an advanced third-generation fighter jet that is completely comparable to the F-16."

Horev led the crowd across the tarmac and into the interior of the workshop. It was very spacious, and many workers were assembling aircraft on the production line. In the open space at the entrance, a beautifully shaped aircraft was placed.

The nose cross-section was oval, with a bubble-shaped cockpit on top and flat on the bottom. This allowed for pre-compression of the air entering the under-fuselage air intake. The oval under-fuselage air intake looked very harmonious. If you only looked at the front, you could recognize it at a glance: F-16!

This was actually the nose of an F-16, but it was different in the back. There were canards on both sides below the cockpit, and behind it was a large area of delta wings, forming the same canard layout as the Kfir fighter jet. This canard was movable, bringing a qualitative leap to the fighter jet's performance.

"Everyone, this is the most advanced Lavi fighter jet in the world!" Horev said proudly: "It uses a high-thrust turbofan engine, a canard layout, advanced avionics, especially a digital fly-by-wire system. Its combat capability is more than twice that of the Kfir fighter jet! What do you think of our aircraft?"

Whoosh!

A crowd of people surged forward.

Although it was a wooden model, it could reveal a lot of information.

Old Song was excited. The overall plan of this fighter jet was almost the same as what they had envisioned: canard layout, under-fuselage air intake, high-thrust turbofan engine. He also wanted to develop a similar aircraft, but unfortunately, there was no project, no funding, and no engine!

Old Lin was very excited. Although the country was imitating the Tomcat, the Tomcat was, after all, a heavy fighter jet. If the country only had one type of Tomcat, the number would definitely not be large. If they could bring back the technology of this aircraft…

Looking at the light in the eyes of the Easterners, Horev breathed a sigh of relief. Sure enough, the Easterners liked this fighter jet.

Although the development of the Lavi fighter jet was in full swing, dark clouds had already shrouded the aircraft. If the Easterners could purchase it, it would greatly reduce their pressure!

The Easterners liked American fighter jets, but there were various additional political conditions. The Easterners liked French fighter jets, but the price was too expensive! Now, this fighter jet of theirs was cheap, had advanced performance, and had no additional conditions. The Easterners would definitely like it!

"According to our plan, after this fighter jet is developed, the cost will not exceed seven million US dollars. You can buy it for around ten million US dollars," Horev began to promote.

Natalie opened her big blue eyes and looked at Qin Yang curiously. Qin Yang was a little strange now. He was not excited or agitated, but was frowning and thinking!

"What is the mission of this aircraft? Is it a close air support-oriented combat attack aircraft, or is it to compete for air superiority and become a high-performance multirole fighter jet?" Qin Yang asked.

Horev was stunned. Could this person be an expert?

The design of the Lavi fighter jet had gone through many iterations. At the beginning, this aircraft was planned as an air support aircraft, similar to the Kfir, mainly dropping bombs. At that time, the United States did not object to anything. By 1982, the design concept became a high-performance multirole fighter jet, which required changes and also affected the sales of F-16 and other fighter jets. Ultimately, it was terminated under the interference of the United States.

Now, Qin Yang could actually see at a glance that this aircraft was based on a close air support aircraft?

"Of course, it is a high-performance multirole fighter jet."

"Then your aerodynamic design obviously has problems," Qin Yang said: "Before you developed it, did you do wind tunnel testing?"