American Notes The Military

The Northrop Corp. bills its F-20 Tigershark jet as a lean, mean, less costly fighting machine. Its rival for the affections of Pentagon purchasers is General Dynamics' F-16 Fighting Falcon, the trim singleengine warplane that has been an Air Force staple for 2 1/2 years. Originally designed primarily for foreign sales, the F-20 has not sold a single plane; apparently foreign buyers are not interested in a plane that the Pentagon will not buy. In an attempt to crack the market, Northrop made an extraordinary offer to sell 396 F-20s to the Pentagon at $15 million apiece. Yet the Air Force, contending that the F-20 is technically inferior to its rivals, strongly prefers the $19.4 million F-16 and the far more powerful $40 million F-15.

Critics in Congress argue that the Air Force is biased against the F-20 because the plane was produced privately rather than through the usual Pentagon procurement process. A House Armed Services subcommittee voted last week to ask the Air Force to hold a fly-off between the F-20 and the F-16 in order to do some comparison shopping for fiscal 1987. Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska reflects sentiment in the Senate for backing the F-20. In a hearing last month, he warned the Air Force, "You're going to get some F-20s this / year whether you like it or not."