The FS-X, or at least, what a purely Japanese FS-X would have looked like.
In 1988, Japan’s indigenous F-1 support fighter’s lifetime was almost at the end, meaning the JASDF and Japanese government needed their next fighter jet to replace their F-1. The JASDF wanted a fighter jet of FA-18 Hornet class, which there were many models available of, and there was a lot of argument over many different answers like buying jets from US, but obviously the Japanese Government choose to make their own indigenous fighter jet. There were several suggestions like using F-15 or F/A-18 as a starting point, but as the investment needed grew massively, those suggestions were discarded.
Finally, there were only two choice left, the full individual development or F-16 based joint development and as what you guys know, due to economical and political causes, Japan choose F-16 based joint development.
The F-2 that we know today is the development of this project. Had the Japanese Government decided to stick with a purely Japanese development, it’s very likely that the F-2 would look something like this.
