Obsolete only in regards to an air breathing Meteor being integrated no later than 2015. If they don’t do so by then the AMRAAM will have evolved to match the Meteor in just about every aspect by then. Sounds like a vote of discord within the MBDA consortium.

The Lightning was inexpensive as a platform. It offered irreplaceable high altitude performance, which is probably why the Spey Phantom could never totally replace it. And it offered a credible defense against the threat of its day, the high altitude supersonic bomber.

The fact that it excelled as a fighter only lends credibility to the choice to keep it alive so long.

Schorsch-

Why the engine switch if no real gain? Jobs. The technical know how was already there. The bulk of their air force centered around the Avon family.

The Spey was a calculated risk that turned out to be expensive with respect to both time and money. It worked out. But it probably was not worth it for all the fuss. An upgrade to the Sea Vixen family probably would have been less risky and kept British engineers busy.

Two things would have put interesting twists on RAF history.

1. Avon powered F-4’s.
2. Adoption of the Saab Draken as a light interceptor.

Typing on an iPod, will elaborate later.

Edit:

1. The Avon 301 family offered relatively similar performance overall to the original J79 because for the meager loss of thrust you also lose nearly an identical amount of weight. The mass flow rate is similar for the most powerful Avon and the J79, therefore less problems with the intakes. You did trade/lose some dry performance compared to the J79, but your wet performance had a nice drop in sfc compared to the J79. If you take a look at the overall difference you still had the same issue with the engine diameter as the Spey, but fewer nags at the end of the conversion.

2. The RM6 produced for the Draken (aka Dragon) by Svenska Flygmotor was a warmed over Avon. The British would have been smart to field a high-low mix of Lightnings and “Dragons”. The Draken offered the same limited ground attack capability they were getting out of the F-4, therefore making the latter unnecessary. And the Draken offered the capability of using radar-guided missiles, which is something the Lightning did not offer in its entire career. (Which missile is a whole ‘nother matter.) No doubt the Sea Vixen needed replacing, but perhaps they could have figured out something other than Spey Phantoms for the job. (OT – a navalized Viggen would have absolutely rocked!) The Draken enjoyed success as an export, so imo there is no reason to doubt the likelihood of this being an option.

Jf-17 is like an rd-33 powered F-7/MiG-21.
Tejas is like an F404 powered MiG-21.

With so many rd-33’s hitting surplus it’s a perfect opportunity for CAC to try to barter for them.

Why hasn’t the Rafale switched to vista yet? :confused:

They don’t use anything more sophisticated than Pocket Windows. (Not to be confused with Windows CE or any of the other post-Pocket Windows versions.) The problem is that their systems were designed twenty years prior to Vista.

It was an interceptor with limited fighting capabilities, not a dogfighter in the strict sense of the word but it was not a bomber killer

see this weapons load, it was wired to used air to land weapons

I’m surprised, you are spot on with your assertion. The original MiG-23 version was indeed wired for both R-3 aam’s and Kh-23 asm’s. And the distinctive interceptor version was introduced later with a new wing, more powerful radar, larger missiles, more internal fuel, a thermal sensor search system, etc. The MiG-23 family didn’t really enjoy a true gci link until 1972 with the introduction of the MiG-23M version.

I was surprised reading its history that if the Su-17M and Su-24 didn’t hog the AL-21 production the early MiG-23’s would have used that powerplant. Instead the MiG-23 enjoyed a real ******* mix of engines.

source: http://wp.scn.ru/mig_okb/178_mig_23

Pretty much the same fault for the F-15’s. The tail.

Maybe they should remove the faulty tails and modernize them into a mig-35 alike.