page_title: Light fighter
section_title: Supersonic era
hierarchical_section_title: Light fighter / History / Supersonic era
caption_attribution_description: Saab JAS-39 at ILA 2010
context_page_description: A Light fighter or lightweight fighter is a fighter aircraft towards the low end of the practical range of weight, cost, and complexity over which fighters are fielded. The light or lightweight fighter retains carefully selected competitive features, in order to provide cost-effective design and performance.
  A well-designed lightweight fighter is able to match or better a heavier type plane-for-plane in many missions, and for lower cost. The lightweight class can therefore be strategically valuable.
  In attempts to scale this efficiency to still lower cost, some manufacturers have in recent years adopted the term “light fighter” to also refer to light primarily air-to-ground attack aircraft, some of which are modified trainer designs.
  From 1926 the light fighter concept has been a regular thread in the development of fighter aircraft, with some notable designs entering large-scale use.
context_section_description: As supersonic performance, with afterburning engines and modern missile armament, became the norm the Soviet Mikoyan MiG-21, the French Mirage III, and the Swedish Saab Draken entered service. The next generation of lightweight fighters included the American F-16 Fighting Falcon, Swedish JAS 39 Gripen, Indian HAL Tejas, Korean FA-50, Japanese Mitsubishi F-2, Chinese Chengdu J-10 and Pakistani CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder. The high practical and budgetary effectiveness of modern light fighters for many missions is why the US Air Force adopted both the F-15 Eagle and F-16 in a "hi/lo" strategy of both an outstanding but expensive heavy fighter and a lower cost but also outstanding lightweight fighter. The investment to maintain a competitive modern lightweight fighter air force is approximately $90M to $130M (2013 dollars) per plane over a 20-year service life, which is approximately half the cost of heavy fighters so understanding fighter aircraft design trade-offs and combat effectiveness is of national level strategic importance.
  In the 1960s and 1970s, a US-based "Fighter Mafia", led by colonels John Boyd , Everest "Rich" Riccione and analyst Pierre Sprey advocated for production of a 4th generation light fighter. Despite heavy fighter losses in the Vietnam War, most senior US Air Force leaders still opposed the light fighter concept. After much debate, General Dynamics designed the successful F-16. Its competitor, the Northrop YF-17, led to the successful McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet Navy fighter as cheaper alternative to the F-14. The F-16 offered excellent air-to-air combat performance due partly to its fly-by-wire control system, which improved agility. When not burdened by heavy air-to-ground weapons, the F-16 had the longest range of any US fighter at the time. The F-16 and F/A-18 later added significant weight to become multirole fighters with strong air-to-ground capabilities, pushing them towards the "middleweight" range of modern fighters.
  The Soviet counterpart to the F-16 and F/A-18, the Mikoyan MiG-29, was originally part of the Perspektivnyy Lyogkiy Frontovoy Istrebitel (LPFI, or "Advanced Lightweight Tactical Fighter") program.
  In the 1980s the privately developed F-5G, later renamed the Northrop F-20 Tigershark, aimed to correct weaknesses in the aging F-5 while maintaining small size and low cost. Its empty weight was 6,000 kg (13,150 lbs). Its General Electric F404 engine produced 60 per cent more power than the F-5, and it had a higher climb rate and acceleration, better cockpit visibility, and more modern radar. Chuck Yeager, test pilot and the first man to break the sound barrier, referred to the F-20 as "the finest fighter" of the mid 1980s. Despite its high performance and cost effectiveness, the F-20 lost out for foreign sales against the similarly capable, more expensive F-16, which was being procured in large numbers by the US Air Force and was viewed as having greater support. The Tigershark was cancelled having made no sales.
  The HAL Tejas has an empty weight of 6,500 kg (14,300 lbs), and is the lightest fighter among current production light fighters. Introduced into limited service in 2014, with 16 IOC specification aircraft delivered to January 2020, it was the lowest-cost fighter aircraft with competitive air-to-air capability in production at that time, at an equivalent cost of US$27 million. A further 16 fighter aircraft, in a FOC specification, and 8 dual seat trainer aircraft have been ordered, are expected to be delivered by the middle of 2021. Several hundred aircraft may eventually enter service with both the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy. The design is similar to the Mirage III and JAS 39 Gripen, being a light tailless delta-wing single-engine fighter with ground attack capability.
  The French Dassault Mirage 2000 was designed for the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) in the late 1970s, as a lightweight single-engine fighter. Based on the Mirage III, it entered service in 1982, and has since evolved into a multirole aircraft. In heavier multirole form, it has empty weight of 7,400 
caption: The versatile Gripen is the second lightest jet fighter currently in production, and features advanced canard-delta aerodynamics.
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