anything can be true, those rumors, just as the oposite. We can start a “rumor” here:

EF made those “rumors” to put pressure on india’s deciders and have some elements for a filesuit on court in case they loose

nice “rumor”, isn’t it? 😀

this however is my point, how can the UK afford to reduce Typhoon numbers, and then order an aircraft in which BAe has no stake whatsoever? after the Typhoon and carriers financial fiasco’s, with a decreasing national economy, this will go down very badly politically

the F-18 could be built locally, but that would give its own difficulties and the UK would not have full access to a lot of technology it’s paying for (as the Australians found out)

they reduce numbers because they have no cash to buy them. if they want a naval aircraft, and the F-35 ceases to be an option, they have no choice but to go for an aircraft in which BAe have no benefit (unless they can negotiate something, but setting a production line for a small series of aircraft may prove costly as well, so…), be it Sh or rafale

ok, once more: forget about bulgaria and the f-4 is unsuitable for anything even if they were given for free.

– convert the Typhoon. even at $20 million extra per aircraft, this will still allow the UK to use a UK built and supported aircraft. what is more, the RN could take over RAF orders which will probably be cut, avoiding cancellation costs. this will allow the UK military to also spread maintenance, upgrade and training costs for a single aircraft

$20 million? I wouldn’t bet too much on it. Converting the Typhoon would mean develop a whole new aircraft. before doing anything, you’d need to change your materials from which you build your aircraft. the standard typhoon is made to operate from ground bases, allowing it to be somewhat protected from corrosion, and when not, it would be caused by atmospheric humidity. When you expose your aircraft continuously to salt water like in naval operations, the corrosion increases enormously, which is why you’d have to define the new materials your aircraft would be made of. Now, when you’ve made your choice, you’d have to make modifications in the design, and, in the first place, build reinforcements to the whole structure, especially in the rear where the hook goes and all that will mean a completely different weight balance, requiring aerodynamic changes as well just as in the FBW sofware that would have to be rewritten in good part. Then that new aircraft which *may* look like a typhoon from far away would need to be thoroughly tested, all of which would add costs, and costs going far beyond the $2bn your +$20m amount suggests for a 100 aircraft figure.

Besides, as the UK already can’t buy the Typhoons it agreed to buy in the first place, it is qquite likely they won’t even buy 100 naval aircraft, increasing even further the pricetag per aircraft.

@ swerve

sure, but all that may mean they have both options open… had they considered the US option only, they wouldn’t need sending people over to France. Now, maybe it’s just a way of putting some pressure on their US buddies, or maybe a bit more. only time will tell

Thing is, you also have elections in france this year and if sarkozy is out of office after that, it may be easier for the governments to pass his declarations as his own position, not that of the french state as such (at least not anymore)

as for naval typhoon debates, again, the government could easily show what the terrestrial typhoon costed already, and say they simply have no intention to start another project that would cost way too much (and nobody can put a clear limit to that) to develop for such a small number of airframes, especially after they paid already way too much for an aircraft that didn’t keep its promises. The rafale option would be “buying off the shelf an operational aircraft with known costs” and the advantage to possibility to share platforms easily (same tools onboard carriers to handle french and UK fighters)

One potential issue may be the image it would give in regards with the competition with the typhoon on export markets (UK buying rafales would certainly make some people wonder), but as things go, typhoon was already pitted against the F-35 once (or at least, F-35s powerpoint slides 😀 ), and that didn’t prevent the UK to be among the F-35 buyers until now.

@ Loke

that may be interesting as the new hungarian politics changes (extremist to say the least) may pose some ethical problems to the swedes

ELP, do you genuinely think the UK MOD is clueless about the problems with the F35? I would suggest they are the exact opposite and the move from the F35B is proof of their concern about the programme’s long term viability.

I find this twoing and froing very hard to follow but would you do me a favour please and explain in plain English why the F35C is having trouble with the tail hook? I would be very grateful.:)

I wonder what Plan B is for the UK MOD. There has to be a Plan B somewhere if they are publicly voicing concern over the future of the project, and are hinting that the empty deck on the new carrier is not their ideal start point….

the tailhook is positioned very close to the main landing gear, which results in the fact that, when landing, the wheels roll over the arresting cables (that have to be inches above deck in order for the hook to catch them) which don’t have time to rise back at the sufficient height and therefore the hook doesn’t catch any of them.

the result is, the aircraft can’t be stopped on deck as it is now. the only way around it would be to move the hook further back, but that would require a complete redesign of the supporting structure inside the fuselage, resulting in a heavier aircraft and moving the CoG further back (as you’d need a stronger -> heavier, structure firther back in it), requiring other studies and modifications to get back to an acceptable weight and CoG position, all of which mean, again, a big additional cost

as for the “plan B”, they don’t have many solutions right now: on the market it’s either the SH or the rafale, since financing alone a development of a naval variant of the typhoon or even the gripen for such a small number of aircraft would be out of the question