thunderchief
Senior Member
With that said, if an aircraft where available today similar to the F-5E or the Mirage III/Kfir (in the 18 to 22 million price range) there would be sales in the 1,000 to 2,000 unit range. These aircraft had a low acquisition cost and a low operational/maintenance cost which makes them very attractive to air forces on a budget or for 2nd tier air force such as Taiwan of South Korea, to supplement their best aircraft. These aircraft would also be essential in any potential conflict as attrition would set in.
Actually, Mirage was not considered as "cheap" fighter in its heyday . It was cheaper then F-4, but Phantom was very heavy and very sophisticated aircraft at that time, almost like F-22 today . Same could be said about F-5, its supposed successor F-20 was competing with F-16 , and neither of them was really a budget fighter . Both Mirage III, Kfir , Mirage F1, and various F-5 variants were more expensive then Mig-21, and later even some variants of Mig-23 .
In modern times I doubt any Western aircraft manufacturer could go lower then F-16 Block 60 or Gripen . And users of Chinese and Russian equipment actually want more capabilities, not lower prices for their JF-17, Mig-29s etc ..