Typhoons are not exactly cheap to run, even if they would be sold at discount prices. Countries able to keep them flying can afford new build and more capable T3 aircraft.

It depends on how you look at it regarding running costs. As the UK’s NAO report shows, running costs drop to the similar figures Tornado has and to what Harrier had, basically because they’re still entering service and the costs include integrations and training, for pilots, ground crew and production crew alike. There’s no difference between Tranche 2 and 3 aircraft and the differences between those and Tranche 1 aircraft probably aren’t, or wont be, significant enough to have a worrying capability gap. The ‘Drop’ upgrades the Tranche 1s are receiving (as well as other enhancements) are there to keep a common fleet of Typhoons in service with minimal differences, and as the likes of P2E, P3E and P4E & beyond come online there’s no doubt Tranche 1 units will receive many elements from these enhancements.

Gripen on the other hand is a very interesting aircraft for airforces with a small budget. But then again I wouldn’t bother myself because of the amount of American blackboxes in it. (Could as well buy F-16 instead)

Well, the Gripen has won more orders than Typhoon and Rafale put together so there’s a lot of demand for it. But there’s no reason why a country with a large budget shouldn’t buy it, it’s a mighty fine aircraft and an aircraft I’d most certainly consider for the UK if I had my way.

Snooker – – boring ,the days of Hurricane Higgins have gone.My grandparent would spend all day watching stuff like that but grandparents of today seem more mobile.

I used to enjoy watching Snooker. Was never crazy over it or would go out my way to watch it but enjoyed it nevertheless. I just stopped watching it when the likes of Shaun Murphy started taking titles… no emotion, feelings, character or anything. Winning a title was like getting a Century. Even ‘The Rocket’ seems a little bored while blasting everyone else out the venue. Saying that, in the last Tournament I thoroughly enjoyed watching… I don’t remember his name now, Chinese fella… what a great, upbeat guy. Full of character and fun to watch, and also a very good player with lots of potential.

The USAF/USN can buy them kitted out for DACT :-), that would be a dream for many 🙂

Especially for F-15 & F-22 pilots! 😛

Apart from Spain, the other three Consortium members are seeming to be wanting to keep their Tranche 1s now. However, if they do get sold off they’ll be well up to date and very similar to Tranche 2s, and 3s even.

There’s no point in Eurovision, especially for the UK. We could make the Beatles go on and no one would still vote for them. Basically, if you don’t rape, pillage, commit genocide, war crimes, famine, public executions and torture your neighbours to death… you’re not going to get any votes from them.

It costs the BBC around £50 million for this sh*te every year… for that amount they could pay for the extra half of the Formula 1 season and show where Britain’s talents really are.

I’m very much looking forward to this. Since the BBC help report the progress of Bloodhound I do hope they’ll have a live showing on BBC TV! It’d be foolish not to! They have to show that the UK hasn’t lost any of it’s edge in the engineering department…

I much prefer the Historic section, people know what they’re talking about on there…

Up until the first 30+ seconds I thought it was serious. Apparantly not. LOL! They’re a good bunch and I’m glad Triumph have come back with a vengeance.

I popped into the Triumph Dealership here in Newcastle yesterday just for a look around. There was one of the older spec versions of the Rocket III and I asked one of the guys if I could try it for size, sure he said… I could get on it and even at 5’11” it was way too big for me. It really is a huge motorbike, and with a 2.3 litre engine which has mountains of torque, very intimidating. The 2013 spec models are actually designed so people can fit on them. 🙂

I’d love this though:

What was that, Harley Davidson? I don’t hear you!…

:highly_amused:

so this is the version with AESA and full air to ground abilities yes?

Tranche 3s, 2s and 1s are production units, not capability units.