Pontius/Mogwi
I of course accept what you say. My first job on Blue Fox was the ARM bit. At that point, you have to accept that the Service Customer (OR, who is at least 4 steps removed from pilots) had accepted that the radar met its spec (a progressive process, ideally witnessed by a pilot and maintainer on the development rigs); but in early 1982 would not have been expecting it fully in-service for another 18 months (?), by which time many ‘problems’ would be ironed out.
As I said, there was a planned development path, and the limitations you speak of were reasonably well understood. There was a cunning plan and it was executed well. The alternative would have been to skip Blue Fox and be without a radar in SHAR until 1987-88; and Blue Vixen would probably have had the limitations. Which would you want?
Also, it isn’t clear what aircrew were told to expect. If you saw the spec before 1982, I’ve explained why that wasn’t what turned up. I know the Sea King ASW guys were expecting a Track While Scan capability in Mk5 (Sea Searcher), and right in front of their nose was a big TWS button. For years they complained it didn’t seem to work. I went to Culdrose in 86, unscrewed a front panel, and showed them there was no wiring to the switch. Development was cut short so quickly in 82, there was no time to fit even a blanking plate, and it was way down the list when we were trying to catch up.
I appreciate we have different perceptions. I kind of knew yours, as they were aired at the annual Contraints Working Groups and Capability Asessment Groups. The process is relatively simple. 1. Aircrew and maintainers set out their problems, in priority order, for each aircraft Mark. 2. OR, but often delegated to FONAC, 'sentence' them at the CAG as Constraints or Limitations. The latter are then forgotten, as you can work around them.
Constraints are tagged Critical, Major or Minor; with a safety caveat if appropriate. This establishes OR's workload for the following 12 months. His primary role is to clear Criticals and Safetys; that is, start the process of persuading the Gods to give him money. In practice, he picks away at Majors in slow time, as they are unlikely to attract funding. Minors - forget about it, unless it can be subsumed in a Critical or Major a little cost. (Typically apllies to software patches). 18 months later, it would get back to Service HQ, who staff the Admiralty Board Submission. (The very first one I did, in August 1985, was the first major upgrade to AEW Searchwater LAST. INS and G8 autotrack. Main Building said that took priority over ANY other radar or sonics requirement). You'd maybe get the capability 2 or 3 years after that.
I can tell you exactly what each FAA CWG and CAG said, as I had to attend and answer questions. If your Sqn CO, AEO , SPLOT (and SOBS for ASW/AEW) complained about what you've said here, my answer HAD to be 'Blue Vixen fixes it'. It was up to the Customer (OR/FONAC) to then say if he wanted Blue Fox to be 'fixed', or if he was happy to wait for Blue Vixen.
In turn, he was bound by strict policy (as was I), which the Treasury lived by. The 'Five Year Rule'. Anything we sought money for had to have a 5 year 'useful life'. I did this in 85-87 as the DGA(N) HQ desk officer, and the 5 years was measured from the notional In-Service Date of any (Blue Fox) modification, to the STATED In Service Date of Blue Vixen. No-one present could say it would meet the criteria, when the next item on the agenda was confirmation that Blue Vixen was on schedule, and half the people there had seen it working and confirmed it cleared the Constraint. A year later, we'd be told the aircraft (FRS2) had slipped a year, but so too the clock started again on your five available years.
You can see that in this sense all of FRS1 support suffered because it was difficult to justify any mod, because the 5 year rule kicked in very quickly after the ISD. I recall one of the main Constraints in my next job, about 1989, was HUDWAC/MADGE integration. Approval was granted and I paid for the equipment mods, but the aircraft office then refused to mod HUDWAC as a higher priority arose, and you never got it. That is very common, and very frustrating.
Hope this helps.