It's based on the late '50s-early '60s F-5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-5 and supersonic capability was

It's based on the late '50s-early '60s F-5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-5 and supersonic capability was a must by then. We bought a bunch of T-38s as, I gather, the default supersonic trainer aircraft, the Thunderbirds switched to them after the first oil shock (and the Blue Angels to A-4s, although an attack aircraft that's not carrying any ordinance is pretty hot...), and full circle, I recall reading the Pakistanis armed some for one of the wars with India, and they did pretty well as long as they were able to stay low.