There will be two seperate LCS designs, just as the JSF or ATF projects. Lockheed Martin consortium is building LCS-1 and LCS-3 while General Dynamics LCS-2 and LCS-4. These four ships are classified as “LCS Flight 0”. After completion, they will be tested for some period, after which the winner design will be announced. General Dynamics LCS, a trimaran design was laid down on January 16th.

If I recall exactly there was another competitor (Raytheon?) at the very beginning of the project, but was eliminated / rejected later.

As far as I know they changed its official name and now it’s IASF = Israeli Air and Space Force.

What are the chances to find a good video of a Sea Zenith? 0.1%?.. 0.01%? Turkish Navy PR videos show only one or two seconds of them firing..

Front fuselage looks like a sweet combination of F-18, F-16 and Rafale.. Very impressive piece of art though

No actual article published that pic, the guys doing it, just pasted the pic above some article of inrelevant contest (Thougth they migth have ‘touched’ the text itself, i cannot remember)

I stand corrected and hail the level of art I am witnessing…

By showing this aircraft Iran says two things:

1 (For international public): 27 years passed since and we still manage to fly US made aircraft, even modify them.

2 (For own public): We have the ability to design and produce an aircraft.

I don’t believe that an old airframe like F-5E with stress loading modifications such as twin tails (note rectangular parts on the tail fin roots) and the same good ol’ J85 would help build a fighter that can meet the standards of modern air warfare. But it must also be noted that Iran has been putting great effort for indigenous weapon systems, an effort that must be respected, I think.

Could the earlier F-5s be rebuilt into this aircraft?

Could be. In fact I, too, think that the aircraft shown flying is a converted F-5E rather than a fresh produced version. But this of course does not mean Iranians are not spending effort on producing a fighter, be it Saeqeh or something else.

I doubt if F-15 would be a good choice for a country like Taiwan. F-15 is big, heavy, expensive to operate, expensive to maintain, expensive to train. I think a multirole fighter which has balance between modern avionics and affordability would be better choice for a country like Taiwan, if you add into account that foreign threat is asymmetrically greater in terms of number and firepower. Expensive and complex fighters mean smaller squadrons, which decreases tolerance to loss of fighters and more importantly pilots, the number of which is already very limited. A cheaper, lighter but yet modern multirole fighter at least helps maintaining a remarkable air force. I think Gripen, Mirage2000 Mk5, F-16 Block50+/52+, MiG-29SMT would be rational choices rather than F-15.