So I've been lurking around for the past couple of days and I'm liking this tread and feel like throwing in my two cents... or twenty (sorry going to be a little nit-picky, but going to keep it as painless as possible, albeit still going to end up with a wall of text).
In the Condor description for its improved survivability it mentions the F-4 Phantom (II) which was involved in the Iceland incident. If this is the same Iceland incident as the one in the novella set in late 1959 than the F-4 wasn't in service at the time, unfortunately entering service in December of 1960 a year later. For the time period the USAF would of probably used the F-102 Delta Dagger and possible (very slim chance but it just happens to be in the USAF inventory at the time before it was moved to the Air National Guard's inventory) F-104A Starfighter and the USN would of been using the F8U Crusader (F-8), F11F Tiger (F-11), and the subsonic (but AAM-N-2(AIM-7) Sparrow armed) F3H Demon (replaced by the F-4 by the time Tri-Service designation system was adopted in 1962). That should be it for that bit, just pick one (probably go with the F-102 or the F8U).
As for why the Condor only has two hard points and gun exploitation, a further explanation could go along the lines of the fact additional ordinance would have cut into it's range and speed due to the additional weight and drag and that two wing mounted missiles and it's internally mounted gun was deemed sufficient without significant re-designing the aircraft. And when I say significant I mean pretty much a whole new airplane. But as is, I think the description is sufficient (once again just trowing in my 2 cents).
On to the Foxtrot, Ishantil's suggestion for explaining the deletion of the gun does have merit. The part of the ARDA system that interprets and processes the data gathered by the sensors is moved inside the airframe to reduce weight and drag imposed by the original implementation of the system on the Condor and too the annoyance of the pilots who fly the aircraft for losing the gun (or something along those lines).
Good job so far and my apologies for rambling. I kind of take researching aircraft seriously (a bit of hobby for me, as well as small arms. Which reminded me, going to make a post asking for a Ballistic Carbine or why it wasn't implement in this version).
As for the speed of the later transports being the same as the modified Chinook that EFD brought up, ya I have nothing. The best I could think of is it's either an over sight on the dev teams part or they intended it to be that speed so when you send it on a intercept with a UFO that has already landed you don't accidentally lose it if the UFO takes off suddenly before the transport gets there and they intercept without a chance for the player to react to cancel it.
TL;DR I'm rambling on about jets.
Which is true (and good point) but as is, the F-17 doesn't appear to have a conformal weapons bays (I would start drooling if they added that for it) Although I don't know if they've marketed that for the F-16 other than CFTs for the Block 60/F-16E/F. As a side note the F-102 and F-106 had internal weapons bay to reduce drag, although that approach had it's own drawbacks. Maybe I should have put more emphasis on the reduction of drag.