On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 09:29:13 -0400, Yeff wrote:

Not impressed with this story - the paper claims....

But, just as the Royal Air Force prepares to take delivery of the first of
more than 200 Eurofighters to which it has been committed for almost a
decade, it has emerged that the RAF will not have all of them in its hands
for long.

A sheepish Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted that moves are already
underway to sell off dozens of the brand-new super-fighters as soon as they
are delivered.

But what the MOD actually said was......

"Some consideration has been given to the scope to provide for early export
of Eurofighter Typhoon to potential overseas customers," admitted armed
forces minister Adam Ingram. "If pursued, a sale might be accomplished by
adjusting the delivery profile to the RAF. The RAF remains, however, the
primary customer for these aircraft and any decision made will take full
account of its requirements."

Which is different. The MOD is saying it's prepared to delay delivery
of some of its buy in order to allow quicker delivery of export
models.

Extremely suspect journalism in other words.

Peter Kemp