Originally posted by Shadowraven
My source:
Modern Military Aircraft Edited by Jim Winchester
In the Eurofighter section I quote :"The original Eurofighter was even more capable than that now being built, but following considerable German
opposition to the original price tag consortium agreed to build a less costly design"
[edit on 9-12-2006 by Shadowraven]
Shad, the source is flawed. The German opposition led to several alternatives being examined, including ditching CAPTOR for off the shelf APG-65's,
swapping EJ200's for RB199's, right through to dropping the Typhoon completely and buying F-16's or F-18s instead of the Typhoon.
It was found that every alternative studied was inferior (surprise!) and also that none of them was significantly cheaper and all of them would result
in the Luftwaffe having to wait longer for new aircraft than they would if the Typhoon just carried on as is.
It is quite wrong though to suggest the Typhoon is now less capable, as no changes to the specification were made. As a compromise it was agreed that
the Typhoon should continue as before but that Germany would not buy some items of equipment (such as the DASS that Matej mentioned). The full DASS
and sensor suites that were always planned are included on the aircraft of the other three partners, so no, the 'original EF2000' was not better
than that built.
