This requirement in my view was never a reasonable one. That is where the whole thing went wrong.
Exactly. The first problem in selling a Harrier III in the 1980s, though, was that the RN clearly wanted F-16-like agility and supersonic. So did the Marines, because they expected to be taking on Soviet flank forces in places like Norway. Hence the US-UK ASTOVL parameters set in 1986.
However... between the Powered Lift Conference in 1987 and 1990, the Brits in particular noticed a disturbance in the force: The US side was clearly up to something under the cover of secrecy. This was Lockheed's STOVL Strike Fighter (SSF), which was stealthy.
It led by 1991 to the origins of the JSF: The key was that the STOVL operators could not only get stealth, but they could get it for free, because by swapping the lift fan for a gas tank you could create the longer-range, stealthy Multi Role Fighter that the USAF wanted.
But then when it really went wrong was the decision to bet all of TacAir on that idea before it had been demonstrated, and here we are.
Last edited by LowObservable; 1st Feb 2013 at 14:57.