Bob Viking , your sneering deprecation of your seniors does you absolutely no favours.
Typhoon suffered only from protracted development, but ever since it entered service it has been a superlative aircraft, which finally gave the RAF a first rate fighter aircraft. Since then it has also proved itself in the air to ground role. I recall an IoM towline trip working with a pair pre-production Eurofighters; used to the rather sedate performance of the Tornado F3 when leaving the tanker with full tanks, the request from the Eurofighter to climb into a block of airspace at around FL500 on leaving the tanker was quite a surprise, as was its subsequent departure and impressive climb.
One hopes that the niggardly procurement policies of earlier years, leading to the nonsense of 'fleets within fleets' will not be foist upon the Typhoon and that all aircraft will receive the 'sensor upgrades'.
Those who would view earlier generation aircraft through rose-tinted spectacles might care to remember:
Vulcan - revolutionary in its day, particularly in its B2 form. But the EW suite was a complete joke and was never adequately upgraded. The AAR system was allowed to deteriorate, as was the conventional bombing system. When South Atlantic War came along, a frantic scramble and the raiding of some museums and station scrap heaps provided just enough to make the aircraft adequately capable. EW kit had to be begged and borrowed from other fleets, as had the single INS.
Lightning - again, revolutionary in its day with shattering performance. But it suffered from short range and for many years lacked a head sector capability. Overland, the limitations of a pulse radar against low flying targets, particularly in an EW environment, were only too clear.
Phantom - the UK's decision to use the RR Spey caused huge problems in the early days of RAF service. But it became a very good multi-role platform, although the radar required considerable skill from the navigator and the aircraft itself had some significant vices at high AoA. Then in later years the air to ground role was virtually abandoned until air to ground strafe was brought back in to the inventory after the South Atlantic War.
Harrier - again, another revolutionary UK aircraft. But it required very high levels of skill to operate and until the GR3, lacked sufficient thrust on many occasions. Later marks bore little resemblance to earlier marks, but the ultimate F/A 2 with AMRAAM, Blue Fox and Link16 was a superb ship borne interceptor which should still be in service.
Jaguar - early versions were woefully underpowered and the cockpit ergonomics were pretty lethal. But it gave a very good account of itself over Iraq, both during the war and afterwards in armed policing; the ultimate version had an excellent avionic system but the lack of thrust was never really resolved.
Hunter - underpowered and with inadequate fuel in its early versions and with significant gun firing problems in the Avon powered version until a somewhat primitive solution was provided. It came of age in its F6 variant, but its air to air role was compromised by the lack of any missile capability and a primitive radar ranging system.
Buccaneer - only came into RAF service after cancellation of TSR-2 and F-111. But the crews worked wonders with such a very demanding aircraft; had the radar and nav/attack systems been upgraded to Tornado standard it would have been exceptional. During my AAR sorties working with mixed Buccaneer / Tornado formations during GW1, the benefits of the Buccaneer's fuel capacity were abundantly clear!
Tornado - an excellent air to ground aircraft which was continually upgraded over the years, providing the RAF with superb service. Whereas the Tornado ADV was an utter joke in its early days. The F2 was seriously underpowered and couldn't meet the spec with more than 6 missiles. Radar of the 'Blue Circle' variety was initially quite appalling. But over the years the aircraft was developed into an exceptional air to air platform, with the final iteration of Foxhunter, AMRAAM, Link 16 and cunning SOPs. Retired prematurely though.
But it seems that the painful lessons of previous years have been learned as regards Typhoon, which just gets better and better. Particularly when operating in concert with F-35B, I gather!
Last edited by BEagle; 10th Aug 2019 at 07:50.