Just to change the subject slightly - what about stealth in all of this? If I remember correctly, a long time ago, when we used to talk about the fabulous new ‘joint strike fighter’, (or ‘joint combat aircraft’, was it?) that was going to be the best thing since the last best thing, stealth seemed to be very important. And also very expensive.
So I was rather struck with that excellent pic (thanks glojo) linked at post 1224, of the B exposing herself.
http://www.navy.mil/management/photo...-GR159-001.jpg
She's got a huge gun pod and six underwing racks. Surely, that can’t be any more stealthy, possibly less, than a Typhoon? And does it matter? Quite apart from the fact that it has been so far, as mentioned above, very expensive to get to this stage.
airsound
edited to say, the link to the pic seems to be too long to work. Not sure how to make it fit - but it's still in glojo's #1224. Sorry!