I don't even think that there was a real fighter jet competition at that time and the CF-5 was pretty much sole sourced because it could be built in Canada, and was a cheap fighter.
It was pretty much outclassed by most other fighters in the world. While it was fast it had Helen Keller radar and no real avionics to speak of. It wasn't a good air to ground platform, the concept was a mess. We basically took a good supersonic trainer plane and called it our primary fighter.
At the same time we bought a lot of them to "support" Canadian Industry and most of them ended up in storage rusting out because of budget issues.
At the same time we had the CF-104 law dart to support Nato in Europe because it was a effective nuclear platform.
this period of procurement should have been called "We really don't know what we're doing" era.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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