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The range problem was solved by funding a fleet of Air Tankers - not exactly a cheap option and its benefit was fairly limited in a War situation. Operational issues were never resolved
Firstly, the Lightning had a very limited time-on-task without Tanker Support. However, once you were engaged and burning fuel, popping back to a Tanker was not a readily available option and probably not required; see below.
Secondly, the aircraft carried an inadequate number of weapons, 2 x AAM are quickly fired out. Of course, some variants had Guns but not really the weapon of choice for the Lightning's war role in the UK ADR. Having scrambled into the North Sea Lanes and engaged, after 30 mins or so, you would probably end up fired out some 100 plus miles from base, short of fuel and essentially useless as an AD asset unless you wished to opt for the ramming tactic. Meanwhile, quite a lot of baddies are still streaming towards the UK whilst most of the UK AD assets need to scuttle back home to replenish weapons and fuel, which takes a lot of time.
Could these Lightning operational deficiencies have been resolved?
Lots more internal fuel - not really, no viable space, fuselage plugs would not have helped and could have caused aerodynamic/stability issues. External tanks - we had some but performance limiting and draggy. Rather than upgrade the entire Mk 3 force to Mk 6 standard; thus a bit more fuel. Someone opted to purchase the visual fits for the Lightning Simulators and we all know how useful that option was!
More AAMs - Firestreak and Redtop were big items with wings fitted, no alternate mounting points are obvious, always remembering you need to safely launch the beasts not just carry them around. Re-fit with Sidewinders would have required an extensive mod programme but probably would have increased the number of AAMs carried. There were attempts to 'up-gun' the Lightning, the Taildog programme got us a bit excited for a while.
In summary, we had what we had, which was far from ideal. However, UK military aircraft programmes are employment providers, if you look back over many years there are not many UK military platforms that could be classed as fully operationally effective. Hell, the Meteor, until a ventral tank was fitted, had even less operational endurance than the Lightning.
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Last edited by lightningmate; 1st Aug 2012 at 16:37.