Originally Posted by
melmothtw
Probably doesn't have much of an impact on your overall point, but, you know, facts.
Facts? Some more facts:
What happened to F-15SA? They began deliveries in late 2016. The program was formally launched in late 2010. So six years from launch to first delivery. The flight test of the all-new digital fly by wire system took 4 months longer than expected, but I would not call that a "major issue." As is often the case, you don't know what you don't know until testing begins and as so often happens, it took extra testing to thoroughly understand the new system. That's done and deliveries are continuing on schedule.
KC-767? Yeah, it encountered unforeseen wing flutter problems with the wing aerial refueling pods installed. Was that a "major issue"? It depends on how you define it and what it took to resolve it. And yes, wing flutter is a major issue, but no, it didn't take anything extraordinary to resolve it, nor anything extraordinary to test the solution.
A330 MRTT? Yeah, the boom broke off. Was that a "major issue?" I don't know, but apparently not. We don't know the cause of this failure nor if it was a design issue or an operator error. I say "apparently not" a major issue because RAAF accepted all five aircraft they ordered and even operated them in a combat zone supporting combat operations.