[QUOTE] S41:
would the USAF would have taken TSR-2 on a licence basis, as they would do with Harrier in the same timescale?
My hunch is "probably", given how effective TSR-2 could've been in SE Asia as well as in Europe, but there are an awful lot of "ifs" in this. [QUOTE]
S41,
I would say not a snowball's chance in hell would the Yanks have taken TSR2.
Sure problems plagued TFX/F-111 development, wing carry-through box being a major one, but engines and auto systems (like CG fuel transfer). The final snapshot is:
F-111A - used unsuccessfully in SEA ops in 1967, but very successfully by 474TFW in SEA on "Linebacker II" in 1972. Some later modded to EF-111A "Spark Vark".
F-111B - cancelled by USN, who then used some systems in F-14.
F-111C - RAAF F-111A, delivery delayed 5 years until 1973, mainly due to carry-through box testing.
F-111D - first digital attempt, miserable failure, spent a lot of time on the ground.
F-111E - upgraded F-111A, equipped 20TFW at Upper Heyford.
F-111F - best of the breed, good digital avionics, more power in the donks, equipped 48TFW at Lakenheath.
F-111G - FB-111A later transferred from SAC to TAC, some to RAAF.
So yes, probs in the late 1960s, but the USAF was getting on top of them and had solved by 1970-71, which enabled a Wing-strength opnl deployment to SEA in 1972.
Brits feel the TSR2 was cutting edge and the panacea for their role and for export. But it was markedly overweight, due to antiquated analogue avionics, heavier than those of its contemporary (the F-111A). I saw the TSR2 on static at Duxford in the early 1970s, and I thought at the time, 'my god this looks old'.
IF TSR2 had ever entered RAF service, its initial avionics performance would probably been as unreliable as Jag's NAVWAS. It probably would have gone through a digital MLU (with kit similar to what went into MRCA/Tornado), but as Tornado would not then have been ordered, TSR2 would have required replacement in the 1990s. (Also, in this scenario, the RAF Bucc would not have been ordered either - much to the disappointment of many here.)
