JSF and the UK?

[ozzy72]

Britain could withdraw from a deal to buy the Anglo-American F-35 Joint Strike Fighter unless the US shares military secrets, a minister has said.
Defence procurement minister Lord Drayson made his position clear in an address to the US Senate's Armed Services Committee in Washington.
Last year the UK told the US it must provide the "technology transfer" needed to maintain and upgrade the JSF.
Britain committed $2bn (

[Craig.]

The irony of it all is, The information they want is actually the information we gave the US.

[ozzy72]

Takes me back to the sound-barrier/Miles Aircraft affair

[Tweek]

Meh. I'd rather have the Rafale or a naval Typhoon . Much more pleasing on the eyes, and still superior to most of the world's aircraft!

[ozzy72]

Bring back the Seafire and Swordfish

[Felix/FFDS]

Bring back the Seafire and Swordfish

Get a real fighter -    Get a Nimrod!

[SkyNoz]

Why is their a "technology transfer", oh 'am I right, we need to give information "performance data" to Rolls-Royce to design a jet engine for our aircraft. for the future of aeronautical achievments?

[beefhole]

Well, they're well within their rights.  Why would you buy an aircraft you don't have the info to maintain?

And was the UK supposed to get any return on the Stealth deal, other than that their closest ally had a stealth fighter?

[Hagar]

This is the best reason I can think of for not depending on foreign countries for military equipment.

And was the UK supposed to get any return on the Stealth deal, other than that their closest ally had a stealth fighter?

What Stealth deal was that? The 'sharing' of technical knowledge seems to have been a one way street for decades.
http://rodneykirkby.members.beeb.net/M-52Pic&Words.html

[C]

Why is their a "technology transfer", oh 'am I right, we need to give information "performance data" to Rolls-Royce to design a jet engine for our aircraft. for the future of aeronautical achievments?

That's irrelevant now as the first kick in the teeth was P&W being given a monopoly on the JSF main engine - I suspect the UK choice would have been the alternative General Electric/Rolls Royce example which was rejected in December (effectively to give P&W a bit of a hand in the world market now its only the third biggest engine producer, and suffering in the civil market)...

As for the JSF, this seems like typical paranoia on the part of polititions (who obviously think the RAF/RN is full of "bad people") and Lockheed Martin, who are obviously worried the MoD will do the old Russian trick and reverse engineer everything, give it to BAES, and produce a multi gazillion dollar fighter...

Being the US' closest ally, it would be quite amusing if we ended up buying the Rafale from the French. I would also find it amusing if other countries JSF orders were cancelled and replaced by Typhoon and the Saab Gripen...

[SkyNoz]

Being the US' closest ally, it would be quite amusing if we ended up buying the Rafale from the French. I would also find it amusing if other countries JSF orders were cancelled and replaced by Typhoon and the Saab Gripen...

I find it's gonna take a while before any crountrie obtain any stealth technology from the USA, the case that we will support other countries with this , is only by seeing them get caught up with the same technology. So basically when another country can successfully engineer a stealth plane that will be in active service, the US will never give it's secrets away.

[Craig.]

The UK already knows how to make stealth aircraft, they have even made a prototype if I remember correctly.

[C]

The UK already knows how to make stealth aircraft, they have even made a prototype if I remember correctly.

With BAES being one of the foremost avionics companies in the world I'd be very surprised if they didn't have significant "low observability" ( ) experience...

[SkyNoz]

The UK already knows how to make stealth aircraft, they have even made a prototype if I remember correctly.

I'm interessting in seeing a shot of this "prototype........

[Craig.]

If there are any I would be happy to. However I have no idea of the name. I just know of its exsistence. I can pretty much guarentee you the reason we dont have them in active service is simply cost and need. We have no need to spend the required amounts for stealth aircraft. The US gladly do that for us. Plus our Tornado pilots have bigger grapefruits, lets face it. Its far braver to fly into a warzone day or night at 100 feet doing mach 1+ to deliver your payload while seeing the whites of your enemies eyes. Instead of flying an all black plane that cant be seen at night and barely heard. Sorry had to