BEagle and Leon,
Spot on with your comments about JTIDS. The real shocker was the cancellation of the full fleet LINK16 implementation in the early 90s. Hence we had yet another mini-fleet within a fleet by the mid-90s, where the Coningsby guys had TIDS and were loath to share it when the rest of us needed it. I started as a sceptic because I felt AMRAAM was more important, but I became a convert after one trip (still wanted the Slammer though).
The greatest travesty of all was the RAF giving up the lead on data-link employment and not rolling out the 'lite' terminals that were being developed across as much of the inventory as possible. Every RAF fast-jet, helo and tanker should be on the net, but the RAF threw away the chance through a mixture of ignorance and prejudice. NEC? We not only missed the boat - we sank it and are still treading water.