While the repositioner does address some of the problems inherent with AESA radars, M-scan does still enjoy some niche advantages, to the extent that the VFA-81 pilot I spoke to thought that the ideal situation was for a unit to have both. He conceded that his maintenance officer and logisticians would have disagreed.

There’s no physical reason that you couldn’t retrofit an AESA to a T1 jet (the original CAESAR demonstrator was a DA, which is some way back from even T1 standards) but I doubt that they’d ever get funding to do it, unless it could be proven to be a spend to save measure.

Half the problem is that M-scan Captor is so good that there’s very little real imperative to go to E-scan, and for the foreseeable future there will be missions for which M-scan will be better. A mix of M-scan and E-scan Typhoons could thus be seen as an advantage.

Why would they need to be structurally identical? Squadrons are already operating a mix of T1 and T2 jets, and cope with the differences easily.

the helmet is a side-show, as the whole cockpit and man to machine interface on Rafale has been found way superior by all countries that tested Rafale and that other plane.

Utter nonsense. As is:

The Rafale finished all tests successfully. The Typhoon did not.

The Typhoon met more of the 643 tick boxes than Rafale

There were other press reports from IAF sources that the Rafale had come out ahead

And there were many credible reports indicating that Typhoon led after the technical evaluation, and then fell down when the L1/L2 decision was made.

The Indians and the Swiss evaluated the aircraft at different times, and were looking for different things. One of the Indian tick boxes was the helmet, for example.

P1EA and P1EB are happening. They’re funded, developed, and in the case of P1EA testing is complete.

Hammond has committed to integrating Storm Shadow and Brimstone. When he made that commitment, it was assumed that would be as part of the Quadrinational programme. After Contract One it is clear that is not necessarily the case, though no timescale has been published, and it’s unclear to me as to whether any funding has actually been allocated.

It is quite unclear as to what “Continued investment” and “capability enhancements to the Typhoon” actually mean, and what they cover. They could simply refer to improvements and upgrades that are already in progress – such as P1E and Strongbow. Or they could refer to items on the longer range roadmap.

There is overhead in the budget, of course, and Hammond made it clear that other priorities could be funded from additional savings.

But many of us were expecting to see clear, unequivocal commitments to Meteor, Storm Shadow, AESA and Brimstone in this budget, and such commitments were not forthcoming. I’m old enough and cynical enough to see that as being bad news – a delay at least, and certainly not the ‘full steam ahead’ that is needed on these core improvements.

CFTs and thrust vectoring are not core, and are only on longer term dream sheets.

I’m aware of the association between the French and “cheese eating”…..

But other nations also have their own cheese-making traditions and expertise, and produce some individual cheeses that are every bit the equal of any French cheese, though these nations may lack the ‘strength in depth’ of the French cheese industry.

Britain may not make a decent soft cheese to rival Brie or Camembert, but we do make the king of blue cheeses in the form of Stilton, though the Italians may beg to differ and may offer up their own evidence in the form of Dolcelatte or Gorgonzola.

And there is something unique about Edam, Gouda, Jarlsberg and Havarti, about Manchego and Roncal, about Provolone, Pecorino, Mozzarella and Parmesan, and about Wensleydale, Cheddar and Cheshire.

All of which might lead the unbiased observer to conclude that while the French may lead the world in soft cheeses (and arguably in blue cheeses, too), it is not a world leader when it comes to hard, pressed cheeses.

And the Swiss make great Cheese, too, if you’re looking for a mild but savoury and nutty ‘bite’. And Emmental is famously full of holes, which makes holy cheese more associated with Switzerland than with France. (Yes I know they make Emmental and Gruyere in France as well, but they are Swiss cheeses, just as Mimolette is basically a copy of Dutch Edam).

The only commonly known French cheeses with holes are Emmental (a Swiss cheese) and some (but not all) varieties of Comté – a much less famous cheese.

So it should be “as full of holes as Swiss cheese.”

All that talk of cheese has made me hungry. I’d really fancy a nice bit of Brie de Meaux……