Chris Kebab
[Never understood it all. Would someone in the know care to reveal why the GEC RAIDS pod was dropped and when the front line are ever going to see the mythical winning competitor. Will it still be called RAIDS.]
Simple answer Chris - Price! GEC RAIDS was proven & integrated on all the target aircraft except Shar but cost more than the "paper" Matra BAE Dynamics one.
ORAC
[As I understand it, it came down to security. The pods transmit unencrypted data which could allow the calculation of launch range and other permitted data. The US came down like a ton of bricks and the system was ditched as unacceptable.]
Not true. Both systems had the same problem, because they used the same Israeli datalink. GEC knew the problem was going to happen, had a fix and even offered a fully US cleared datalink but MoD said security wouldn't be a problem. They were wrong The US did as you said after the contract was placed with MBD.
All history now. Shame the system isn't in service, it was a good idea and could still work well.
Not prepared to go any further either on or off forum.