I like the high altitude performance of the regular Tiger. In hindsight the true swept wings really gave fighters some altitude if they had an engine that could handle it. Coupled to an active guidance missile with some range (like aim-120c) they could still pose serious problems to a lot of modern fighters that operate at much lower altitudes. Back then not so much of a threat unless they wanted to come down to play.

Let’s say the F-11F-1F wins the competition over the F-8. For fraternal reasons that means they never put an order in for the A-6. What competing design gets built in the A-6’s place?

Whereas the slightly older technology could be dropping dumb bombs on them for much cheaper on a hourly basis. The WoT needs to be economized to a sustainable level. I say bring back the 2000hp-class 12-ton propeller-driven 1300-mile round trip warbirds and infuse them with a side-mounted M197 (3-barrel M61 derivative gun); a pair of pylons using the UWH system (Umbilical Weapon Harnesses) assemblies under each wing, and both an underbelly and tail-mounted versions of the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS) complete with video recording capability. Each UWH would hold up to four Hellfires, an M261 19-tube launcher for Hydra 70 (70mm FFARs); or ATAS (Stinger).

The Super Tiger simply came along too late. To be sure, the J-79 was almost a generation more advanced than the J-57, but the J-65 was very poor engine indeed and ruined the credibility of the Tiger to begin with.

The F11F-1F Super Tiger was with a J79. Did you mean to imply it used the J65? The J65 was the licensed Sapphire, same jet used in the Starfighter prototype. It went into the B-57 and Skyhawk, too. Considerably lighter engine than what went into the production Starfighter and Super Tiger prototypes.

At least post it brightened up with gamma… and choose a non-NSFW host 😛

The most likely event I see for a large war is a combination of water and food depravation of a country on gigantic proportions. China, India, Japan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and lower Africa (in general) being the most vulnerable. The militarization of North Korea would look silly in comparison to any of the big countries like India, Russia, or China get desperate. On the other hand, if it was China they’d use the puppet regime of North Korea to spread the pain long before they’d enter into conflict. They might even militarize African countries to distract the western hemisphere…