It's pretty tough when you've got Russia and China out there competing with you and you're running from behind.
The Tempest looked interesting, until I saw the hoping to fly by 2035 part, which really means 2040 or later.
It's really a technology make-work project to keep their skills up and retain defense capability, which isn't a terrible idea so long as the cost is tightly contained.
Considering they already make the Typhoon and have a century of experience in the field across many different aircraft platforms, in what way are they running from behind?
In service by 2035, flying much earlier - certification, training, development and integration programs to run after flights of the production design, flights of early designs years before to work out the preprod kinks.
The Tempest looked interesting, until I saw the hoping to fly by 2035 part, which really means 2040 or later.
It's really a technology make-work project to keep their skills up and retain defense capability, which isn't a terrible idea so long as the cost is tightly contained.