George. Choose your own words carefully then. You said is wasn't able to carry drop tanks. It is. The 426 Gal DTs were designed. We voted to drop them out of SDD in 2010 (not 9 years ago) because the fuel fraction gained relative to the internal total wasn't worth it.
Bottom line: the aircraft IS able to carry DTs but we dropped them (excuse pun). If that changes in the future I'll happily send you a photo. As I said, you're wasting your time with your negative bias - the jets are being bought (UK get 8 delivered this year). If you think your comments here will turn political and military decision making I wish you luck.
Last edited by MSOCS; 2nd Apr 2017 at 13:51.