British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

Re: British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

feeds@yuku.com (Alexius55) — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:30:24 GMT

The other thing is why they didn't go the other way round, and have a Sea Typhoon instead of JSF. Obviously, all the Eurofighters would look very different in that case.
Presumably, it's because when the EAP was designed in 1985, CVF was not thought of, and if you had asked anyone what the Invincible replacement would be the answer would probably be a 25-30,000 tonne CVS, which would require STOVL aircraft- i.e. not Typhoons. However, had there been a move to make the Typhoon...

Re: British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

feeds@yuku.com (JBren1) — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:37:04 GMT

As mentioned there was a huge gap in time between the intial decision made to buy the Eurofighter and the one to buy the JSF (though if, big if, the JSF doesn't slip in schedule much more the 'initial operational capability' dates will be less than 10 years apart, not all that much by today's slow moving a/c procurement standards). Anyway weapons programs are 'jobs' and defense infrastructure projects foremost in many or most cases, and at least as of the time of...

Re: British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

feeds@yuku.com (taschoene) — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:34:43 GMT

bager1968 wrote:
Joint Force Lightning.

Yeah, I realized that after I posted.

Re: British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

feeds@yuku.com (bager1968) — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:21:59 GMT

Joint Force Lightning.

Re: British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

feeds@yuku.com (Red Admiral) — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:53:06 GMT

The F-35s for the FAA will be augmented by F-35s from the RAF in service as well when CVF is carrying it's full aircraft complement.

Re: British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

feeds@yuku.com (taschoene) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:21:48 GMT

First of all, the British signed up to Eurofighter a decade or so before the Joint Strike Fighter Program even existed. And of course Eurofighter is delivering operational aircraft now, not a decade from now.

Second, the RAF is also getting JSF, as a successor to Harrier, so the notion that JSF is strictly for the Royal Navy is simply wrong -- both services will provide crews (and airframes, I think) for Joint Force Harrier.

Thirdly, JSF and Typhoon are clearly optimized...

British Fighters, why American for FAA, European for RAF?

feeds@yuku.com (Admiral Beez) — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:33:39 GMT

With tight budgets, why has Britain decided to use American JSF fighters for the FAA, while using Eurofighter Typhoons for the RAF? Wouldn't have been more prudent to simply join the JSF program for both FAA and RAF, and skip the Eurofighter group?