RK, another view may be that with the knowledge their airships had during the early years of EFA as it then was is that there existed a serious AA dogfighting gap. Unexpected levels of continuous operations for the last 17 years, plus cost saving by cutting some CAS fleets has produced the current AG shortfalls. Unfortunately with a complex aircraft, in terms of control laws etc I imagine the plan was always to get an aircraft that is aerodynamically mature and predictable before bringing it into close proximity to the ground as a CAS platform. Once these processes are written into a contract which three other nations have had to sign up to you can imagine how difficult it will be to change the programme. In short the seeds for this situation were sown in the last decades of the last century. (reminds me of HG Wells!)