Thats what geniuses in Israel get for canceling Lavi in the 80’s. The way things are going with F35, the US Airforce might think twice of selling those birds to anybody. Because of constant delays with F35,the IAF needs a stop gap aircraft.
You can’t go too far with a project that requires foreign funding and technology. The only hope for the Lavi was if they stopped relying on US assistance.
I was directly involved in the Lavi.
We were pretty much told to shut down or would not be getting support for our US jets -— certain US companies did not want a cheaper and better aircraft than the F-16* on the market.
* In fairness, we were sitting on the backs of giants — notably decades had passed since the F-16 had been first sketched, so manufacturing, comptuers, and aeronautics had progressed rather remarkably.