Ken,3 of the `K`s went to Austria,and 2 to SriLanka( maybe even ex-tankers) and still appear to be working....
Indeed, sycamore, I did the odd training sortie to their home base and would occasionally see them flying. It would seem there’s still some life in the old dogs!
The Sri Lankan’s did take a couple of the old tankers and they really were tired. Multiple sorties at TOWs of 175,000lb did take their toll, as did the fighter affiliation even if we had to burn down to 135,000lb (as I recall) before we started to rack up the FI. Happy days!!
Back to the original question of retaining the J - a few years ago I had to host an amiable young lady at one of the OM annual shindigs for local dignitaries. She was from the A400 wing design team at Filton and I asked her about battle damage repair to the composite wing. She said there was none possible and that a single round through the structure would scrap the entire wing. ‘How many spare wings were there?’ I asked. ‘’None’ she said...
So in any future war scenario we might need some alternative Tac AT ac!