Funny thing about aircraft is that a well-designed aircraft can excel in many roles despite those roles not being part of the design spec. The F-16 was designed (at least in the YF-16) to be purely air to air. Turned out to be an excellent ground attack plane. F-15's motto was "Not a pound for air to ground." yet the F-15E Strike Eagles is excellent at strike and interdiction roles.
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By all accounts Boyd (of OODA loop fame) did a really good job of saying "no" to unnecessary features people wanted to push onto the F-16.
Funny thing about aircraft is that a well-designed aircraft can excel in many roles despite those roles not being part of the design spec. The F-16 was designed (at least in the YF-16) to be purely air to air. Turned out to be an excellent ground attack plane. F-15's motto was "Not a pound for air to ground." yet the F-15E Strike Eagles is excellent at strike and interdiction roles.