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Old 10th Feb 2006, 17:41
  #43 (permalink)  
Tim McLelland
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
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You serious?!
Nice though the F3 is, it was, by any standards, a bit of a disaster.
Designed to fulfil a specific role, it entered service without any useable radar, and by the time it had been developed into a viable combat aircraft, the role for which it had been designed had gone.
Okay, it still has the ability to out-run just about everything else around, but it was always pretty hopeless as a dogfighter, and now it merely soldiers-on until more Typhoons are delivered.
It's a shame, as it is a good aircraft, but it was useless for the UK's needs by the time it became fully operational. The RAF appear to have bestowed the ultimate insult on it this year by removing it from the air display demonstration circuit - and I think that speaks volumes.
What a shame that more money wasn't found to re-role the aircraft in the SEAD mission - a waste of a good aeroplane.
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