But we are getting TVC.
Read this article...
Upgraded Eurofighter offered to Indian Air Force
What does it meant, upgrade will pay for itself through life cycle cost reductions ?? I mean, will they be charging extra from what they had submitted in the offer ??/
According to me....No, because the offer was placed before and these upgrades offer came afterwards.
It means what I said before, TVC is an upgrade option for any customer of the EF, if he is ready to pay additional costs for it! It was developed and some ground tests were done even in the early 2000s, but nobody had paid for the integration into EF, or the neccesary further developments and flight test. So the argument of Eurojet is, that these additional costs will be paid off during the life cycle of the fighters, because of the lower fuel consumption.
It's the same like upgrade options for the F18SH (GE 414 EPE, in future CFTs, integrated IRST...), or the Rafale (HMS, CFTs), Mig 35 (foreign avionics and maybe weapons), Gripen NG (Israeli, or Russian weapons), all these things are possible, some are even developed and tested, but never integrated. Some customer thinks they are not needed, but mainly it depends on cost reasons and especially for the EF that is a problem, because as long as T3 is still not fully cleared, we don't know what techs, or weapons means additional costs.
Also with such a high price tag of EF-2000 ,countries are still in dilemma whether to go for it in that high price tag or add few bucks and go for F-35 , similar thing stuck Japan they were interested in EF-2000 after the sale of Raptor was rejected but later with the price tag of EF-2000 they preferred F-35 .And now by adding TVC its price will further shoot up and that will make it a hell of costly fighter thats why they are hesitant to go for it
It's not the price alone, because they are right to say that in some fields EF is more 5. gen than F35 (SC, super maneuverability swashplate radar)!
The biggest problem for EF is, that Italy and UK are not only partners in that development, but in F35 as well, so it's not only export customers that asks themself should we buy EF, or F35, but even these developing countries itself. If they were as comitted to EF as Germany/Spain, or as France on Rafale, they would focus way more on future capabilities, even if the costs are high.
At the moment I think neither UK, nor Italy will remain on their T3B order plans and will cancel, or resell them to other countries (India, Japan, Turkey) in favour of F35 orders. Even in Germany, where the EF is one of the least developed anyway, the T3B orders are more than in trouble.
It's actually a great fighter, but it's sad that it might never show it's real potential.