In terms of armament, the CL-1200 would keep the F-104's 20mm General Electric M61A1 gun as its standard, forward / fixed armament. However, there was provision to be made to have this weapon easily replaced by the 30mm DEFA autocannon system for those export customers already aligned with the French weapon. The Lancer was also planned with nine hardpoints for the carrying of various in-circulation Air-to-Air (A2A) and Air-to-Surface (A2S) munitions as well as wingtip- and underwing-mounted fuel tanks - all this a vast improvement over the limited F-104 stores capabilities.
The finalized CL-1200-2 form was to exhibit a running length of 57.2 feet, a wingspan of 29.1 feet and a height of 17.1 feet. Empty weight was 17,250lb against an MTOW of 32,500lb. The PW TF30 turbofan fit would have provided 15,000lb of dry thrust and 25,000lb of thrust with afterburner.
Lockheed had also looked to creating a two-seat trainer variant for its Lancer line to better instruct its new operators on the nuances of the supersonic aircraft. The second seat would have taken up some of the internal space used for fuel stores, limited range, but this would have been negligible considering the role of the trainer-minded aircraft. A future proposed variant was also to carry the more potent Pratt & Whitney TF-30-P-100 afterburning turbofan for both increased power and performance - this as the CL-1200-2 / CL-1600. The CL-1200-2 was to compete in the United States' Lightweight Fighter Competition of 1972 which was eventually decided between the General Dynamics YF-16 and the Northrop YF-17.
All of the work came to naught when, in November of 1970, the Northrop F-5 design won out over all others. This essentially killed any prospects for the supersonic lightweight fighter-interceptor proposed by Lockheed with the exception being United States Air Force interest in acquiring one CL-1200 for testing flight envelopes beyond the Mach 2.55 range. The aircraft was given the designation of "X-27" but was never funded so it, too, died though only after a full-scale mock-up was completed by the company (and up to three early-form fuselages were being worked on at the time). Of note in the revised X-27 model was its squared-off intake shapes.
The CL-1200-2 and the X-27 were also at the heart of another proposed version of the Lancer, this geared towards the United States Navy as the CL-1400/CL-1400N. However even this initiative fell to naught.
Content ©MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.