Is this a good plane?

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it's not american so no

In 1981? Not bad.

In 2017? Embarrasing.

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>>35100839
Given the airframe's age it's still holds up well for the ground attack role, its life as an interceptor wasn't that great or eventful. So until F35 procurement gets done, or they give the Typhoon some ground attack capabilities its likely to stay in service a couple more years.

Good, sure. Great, not really.

Its one of those planes that can do lots of things, but none of them exceptionally well. You can arm it with missiles and it makes an OK fighter. Strap bombs under it, and its an alright attack aircraft.

All things considered, it does nothing really better than an F-16 except cost more.

>>35100869
I thought Britain was retiring them come 2019?

Which would be a shame, since they've been useful in Syria

The Germans are also looking to retire their's soon, no clue how they're gonna replace it

>>35100557
Quite the fantastic aircraft even

>>35101025
>no clue how they're gonna replace it
F35

Total Euro-Fag air-shit

>>35101101
I thought they were going with that joint program with the Frenchies

>>35100557

Very.

It's a fantastic air to ground platform, and has performed fantastically and reliably for decades now.

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>>35101025
Like I said, if there are some hangups with F35 procurement the Tornado could stay in service longer not in just the UK, but also in Germany.

>>35100994
Its a dedicated ground attack aircraft, that could be reconfigured as an interceptor. As for what it does better? Produced in Europe, and its got a higher combat load, thats really all I can think of.

UK is only buying the b variant of the F-35. They gonna need a Tornado replacement as well and BAE is in danger of losing industry relevance.

>>35101189
F-35B is the tornado replacement.

Though I hope they buy some As, since apparently the nifty new version of the HARM Orbital is cooking up can't fit in the B's internal bay (but can fit in the A and C) and they need some solid SEAD capability.

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>>35101189
>BAE is in danger of losing industry relevance.

>>35101238
>48 F-35B
>replacing anything

With Airbus as new big player and the British Brexit antics.

BAE is pretty much done in the fighter developement department

>>35101277
They're buying 138 of them

>>35101277
Actual only 42 are ordered

>>35101290
Yes, because of all the extensive experience Airbus has designing fighter jets.

>>35101380
That's not even true.

14 are ordered. 42 are planned for mid 20s

>>35101381
They actual do.

The German, Italian and Spanish part of the Eurofighter developement are all Airbus now.

>>35101480

So basically nothing given almost all the EF's upgrades have been BAE pushing them along in the UK from RAF requirements.