Originally Posted by
ancientaviator62
IIRC, THE 'J' was almost two years late into service as Lockheed seriously underestimated the task.This caused the 'K' to be run on longer than anticipated with a huge knock on effect on spares and personnel. None of this could have reasonably been forseen by the RAF as it was not until late in the day that Lockheed came clean about the problems with their 'easy' project.
I think you’re being generous there AA62. Not sure quite how long it took for FOC to be achieved. LM took on a lot with the J, but the UK was not helped by an appallingly badly written contract that was then poorly enforced. It was treated as a COTS buy, but had to undergo full development.