"Peavey_HP_Signature_Guy" wrote in message
...

Given the above...did the RAF ever look at the "stealth" technology in
detail and make a decision on it?

They did, and came up with retiring the Vulcan, and replacing them with the
Tornado, which is to be replaced by Typhoon. Typhoon was at one time
advertised as a Raptor without stealth, at a fraction of the price. I guess
that means the RAF decided against developing pure stealth platfors,
although I'm pretty sure they *did* incorporate some of the technology.

Stealth is useful, but overrated. During their first peace time overseas
deployment in the early 1990s (Gilze-Rijen AB in the Netherlands) we at the
GCI station had no problem tracking F-117s on their flights to and from the
bombing ranges. In fact, we used to call Wing-Ops to inform them when the
birds were about 10 minutes out for recovery.

When the US brought the B-2 to Europe (Farnborough, 1996), a BAe/RAF Rapier
system had no problem tracking that aircraft either. BAe bragged about it,
so the next day it was accompanied by two F-15 escorts. This allowed the
USAF to claim that the Rapier crew was not tracking the B-2, but one of the
F-15s.

Ron
--
Non urinat in ventum