I've been searching for quite a long time a reason(or reasons) for the UK, Canada and Norway to have dropped out of MIDS program in 1991, just before the signing of the MIDS PMOU. They were indeed a MIDS program members since phase one. Particularly interesting is the case of UK, since they were also one of the first JTIDS class 1 users, having fitted their Sentries with class 1 terminals. They were also pretty quick in adopting class 2 terminals for the Tornados and are continuing to extensively use the MIDS terminal. In fact, they probably will be the only Eurofighter consortium operator that will fit a JTRS instead of F-EMIDS for their Typhoons in the future. Today they are, afaik, part of MIDS IPO, but is not part of the SC.
My initial guesses were that it might be due to the fact that UK have been heavily investing into IUKADGE by the late 80s and early 90s; maybe they didn't see a reason to participate in MIDS LVT funding and development if :
a) their interceptors are going to be coordinated and relayed from the ground
b) other MIDS partner nations, who also happens to be Eurofighter consortium members, are going to fund MIDS development for the application on Eurofighter Typhoons
couple that with the end of the cold war, I could see the reason behind their exit, though that is still just my guess. Another reason I could think of is the clause of the MIDS PMOU, but I don't think that played a deciding role in UK's decision seeing their commitment to Link 16.
Can anyone help me out with this question?
My initial guesses were that it might be due to the fact that UK have been heavily investing into IUKADGE by the late 80s and early 90s; maybe they didn't see a reason to participate in MIDS LVT funding and development if :
a) their interceptors are going to be coordinated and relayed from the ground
b) other MIDS partner nations, who also happens to be Eurofighter consortium members, are going to fund MIDS development for the application on Eurofighter Typhoons
couple that with the end of the cold war, I could see the reason behind their exit, though that is still just my guess. Another reason I could think of is the clause of the MIDS PMOU, but I don't think that played a deciding role in UK's decision seeing their commitment to Link 16.
Can anyone help me out with this question?
