When, in the early ‘70’s Norway’s Air Force took the decision to look beyond Scandinavia’s Saab-designed Draken and issued Requests For Proposal to various international aircraft designers, a local consortium of airframe, engines, electronic systems and armaments proposed the Svart Wolf (English: “Black Wolf”).
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Equipped with an advanced (for its time) canard control surfaces design, landing gear designed to accommodate an RFP requirement of short take-off/landing and operation from unprepared surfaces (including Norway’s famous Winter snow), low-to-the-ground field maintenance, and both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat capabilities, the Svart Wolf was pitted against its principal competitor, the US F-16, and, in an extended series of “fly-offs” proved to be more capable than its American rival. Nevertheless, for unexplained reasons, the F-16 was selected and the Svart Wolf was (similar to the infamous Canadian Avro Arrow Government Ministry decision) broken up and destroyed.