Originally Posted by Geehovah
I maintain my line. The design driver was the air to air role. The secondary air to surface functionality was included but was subordinate when a conflict in requirement arose. There's a good reason why it was not in the early sw releases.
Some A-S modes were in the initial DS-C software release that was delivered in the late 1990s. Just not all of them.
Originally Posted by Geehovah
Remember the context. For air to ground roles, Germany had the F4 but at that time was not allowed to operate outside of its own airspace. Italy had the Tornado GR1 and Spain had bought the dual role F18. We had Jaguar, Harrier and Tornado GR1 so no one envisaged the secondary A-G capability as being anything other than for operational flexibility. In retrospect, it's a good job that the UK "senior management" were indeed visionary and pressed the other Nations so hard but that's not the point.
...And I was under the impression that AST.403 and SR(A) 414 explicitly involved a replacement for the Jaguar...
Originally Posted by Geehovah
As for OT, all the original testing was purely A-A based. It was only in 2005 that the emphasis switched and even then only on a National basis.
While I agree that the primary driver was to support A-A, I don't think that the order of testing should be mistaken for the sole intent. Air-to-Surface wasn't some kind of "bolt-on" that suddenly appeared less than a decade ago, it's been part of the design from the very beginning.
Reading the full report, it's interesting to note that the £3Bn increase in production costs weren't really to do with the aircraft design; a billion quid is put down to an attempt to save money by delaying things (just like the aircraft carriers) and the other two to the workshare and multiple-production-line issues. The delay in A-S modes isn't down to a lack of ability, it's put down to a lack of money - not having enough spare parts, aircraft, or time to qualify or train for the role.
Originally Posted by Geehovah
and incidentally, the Italian F104 was purely an air to air platform. As an aside, if our cost increases are bad, for the Italians add the price of a Tornado F3 lease and bizarrely, an F16 lease to tide them over.
...hence my point about the need to push A-A to the front of the queue in order to get the Italians something to replace their aging F-104
