“We might have the 4th largest defence budget in the world, but that isn’t neccessarily relevant when you consider that British defence procurement is an utter shambles and money is pissed away on equipment projects that are more about creating jobs than providing the best equipment at the best price for the troops.”
Of course it was, we’ve had 13 years of labour. Now we don’t.
“How about the Eurofighter, which was even more expensive than the US Raptor in both development costs and unit price, despite having far less capability.”
I don’t know what sources you get your information from, but the only time a Typhoon and an F22 have directly competed in combat trials were at NAS China Lake where the Typhoon broke all expectations of it’s performance and was highly lauded by the US test pilots who were ‘shot down’ by it. There’s plenty on google if you use a few of the keywords above. As for a cost and ability comparison, try this:
http://www.aviatia.net/versus/eurofighter-vs-f-22/
The upside is that the Typhoon doesn’t try to suffocate its’ crew.
“If HM Government actually spent that money effectively instead of just throwing it at the BAe Systems money gobbler and accepting whatever overpriced rubbish they defecated out, we would have a military that rivaled the US in both technological terms and in availability of equipment...”
You do know how much the US forces also rely on BAe don’t you?
All that stuff about the Eurofighter may be true (I wouldn’t know, I’m not an aircraft engineer), but I would have thought it was all a moot point, because superior stealth is the most over-riding factor. The F22 will be able to sneak up on just about anything, whereas the Euro fighter will not.
Although, having said that, perhaps if the Eurofighter is going up against mickey mouse 3rd world nation fighters, it might well be the superior option, I will concede that. I wouldn’t be so sure against the latest Russian and Chinese fighters, which will no doubt eventually filter down into the arsenals of lesser, but more likely potential adversaries in the years to come....
Yes, I know the US also buys stuff from BAe Systems, but as far as Britain is concerned, BAe Systems is a leviathan that has virtually no competition in defence procurement projects were the priority is to buy British. In the US, there is more competition, and thus defence contractors are forced to be more competent than BAe Systems, which I believe is complacent in its belief that they will almost certainly get the major defence contracts regardless of quality, because there are no other British defence contractors with the capability to produce rival products anymore, seeing as BAe Systems systematically gobbled them up over the years.