NoseGunner
Fair comment about 1983. Fox was getting its first upgrade to bring it up to spec, as final development had been curtailed by the Falklands. (BF0100 series mods I recall). The mid-life upgrade (to Fox Mk2) was also planned by that time which was also, in effect, a technology demonstrator for Vixen and ECR90. Mk2 kit was available in 85.
Far from being a dream, Kestrel predates Vixen and was being trialled at RAE Bedford in a Sea King around 1984 – certainly no later than early 85. At the time, Ferranti regarded Kestrel as a simple upgrade to Sea Spray, which itself dates to around 73. Bear in mind the published ISD of Merlin at that time was late-80s. We had kit to play with, all the reliability data was known and accurate costings available. This is why so much of Merlin’s avionics is obsolescent – it is a mixture of 70s and 80s designs.
I first saw Vixen working as an early development model in late 85. ECR90 was not far behind. I stand by my point that, given the development timescales for such complex systems, state-of-the-art radar design expertise resided in Edinburgh throughout the 70s.
Ali - You obviously know RSD(S) but for my money the RSD(N) team in Edinburgh was the dogs *******. To my certain knowledge, the Chief Designer, Chief Test and Production Engineers and their teams were still in place many years after the International Signal, GEC-Ferranti, GEC-Marconi days.