Originally Posted by
George K Lee
The schedule on paper called for Block 3 IOT&E in early FY14, but flight-test jets were being delivered 6-16 months late and when they were "delivered" they still needed a ton of upgrades and fixes. It would take another three years before the program was sufficiently stabilized to even set new IOC dates.
Not great certainly, but then by way of comparison Typhoon was four and a half years late when delivered in 2003. Type 45 was three years late and wasn't fully capable for another 3 or 4 years after that (and still has issues). Astute was a lot later still. The Army's FRES armoured vehicle project was initiated in 2001 with an expected service date of 2009. Deliveries of Ajax, which FRES evolved into, are just about getting under way with an aim of having it deployable from the end of 2020.