Originally Posted by
Asturias56
Browsing through the Putnam's "The British Fighter since 1912" by Mason I came across the following in the history of Tornado development and the Phantom problems:-
"Several other American fighters were evaluated by British pilots Including the F-14, F--15 and F-16 but none proved to meet the RAF's fighter requirement in the context of NATO Strategy and tactics."
Since the F-15 and F-16 were deployed as part of NATO by the USAF and several European countries bought the F-16 can anyone shed some light on what the RAF requirements were that made the US fighters unacceptable?
Thanks
In sum:
Not built at Warton, in addition,
F-14: too expensive.
F-15 & F-16: no probe, so cannot be refueled using UK tankers
F-18: sadly, just too late.
End of.