Originally Posted by
tucumseh
Never a truer word spoken. I believe that would have been a political decision, although I have to say that Tornado radar was kept at arms length from the rest of MoD's radar staff - for example, it was excluded from the Fire Control and Surveillance Radar IPT when it was formed in 1989. There was definitely an unwritten policy in Government (embraced at a higher level in MoD) that far too much high-tech work was going to Edinburgh, which resulted in some draconian and targeted funding cuts. This extended well into the 90s; for example, they won the Sea King AEW upgrade bid by a country mile, but a political overrule handed it to a company who didn't even bid.
The previous mention of performance in jamming was also briefly a problem in Sea Harrier, because Blue Fox development had been shut down to start production in early 1982 due to the outbreak of hostilities. But the design caught up within a year, with a superb "jamming package", and then further improved 2 years later for the Blue Fox Mk2 upgrade. I would not be too harsh towards companies in such circumstances.
As an aside, and for good technological reasons, it could be said we put all our eggs in one basket in the mid-late 70s, with the concurrent development of a number of front line radars creating a huge hump in funding. All 3 of the FAA's radars had to launch production early in 1982 (Sea Spray, Sea Searcher, Blue Fox), and the AWG-series and Blue Parrot were getting on a bit and in dire need of upgrade/replacement. Thereafter, there was a definite pecking order for funding, with Blue Fox benefiting, due to its relationship with Tornado, EFA and Blue Vixen.
Could you clarify 'Launching Blue Fox Production' in 1982 as the radar was already in production and in service several years before that. First at sea for trials aboard HMS Hermes in 1979, In sqn service with 800NAS and 899NAS 1980 and 801NAS from 1981. Indeed the then-full production order of 34 Sea Harriers was almost complete by 1982, plus the two Blue Fox sets fitted to Hunter T8Ms. All the SHARs that went south in April 82 had Blue Fox fitted and operational... so it seems odd to state they were only just being put into 'production'. Did you mean further development?