New light fighters from Asia on the global markets

The high cost of the latest fighters is having a major impact on world air forces, big or small. For many countries it is a difficult balancing act as it becomes hard to afford enough aircraft to maintain the required force structure. Those air forces have to ask themselves whether they can afford enough fighters to accomplish all the desired missions. Many European Air Forces are in unenviable situation, because they can perform only the basic tasks like training and QRA missions over its own territory with limited possibilities for overseas deployment. This paper evaluates the likelihood of renaissance of the light fighter concept and describes three new Asian supersonics with their advantages and disadvantages. The aim is not to select the best lightweight fighter, but to show that rearming to the light variants of combat aircraft should be a good way for some Air Forces.