Originally Posted by Geehovah
The design driver and basic requirement for Typhoon (Eurofighter) was to deliver an air to air platform. Only the UK pushed the ground attack requirement during my time on the project. Initial OT quite rightly was to prove the spec compliance against what we asked for. Only in the mid "naughties" did the emphasis shift towards the swing role.
Your time on the project was presumably after mine. I started work as a design engineer on the Typhoon radar in 1990, about the time the development contract was signed (the bid team in our department had been working on it for a few years before that).
I can assure you that the Air-to-Surface modes were a key part of the original 1980s radar bid, in response to the original specification. While some initial A-S modes were part of the first production radar software release, the bulk of the A-S functionality was always scheduled to turn up second (at the time, the Italians had a pressing need for some new fighters to replace their F-104, and so the original schedule had us delivering Air-to-Air stuff first).
In polite terms, I believe your statement to be either ill-informed or misleading...