"As Penney admits: "The last time a UK pilot shot down an enemy aircraft was in 1982 in the Falklands." Since then, Britain's frequent wars have been fought against opponents either without air forces or without much chance to use them. Yet the Eurofighter was devised in a very different era: when massed formations of Russian aircraft were anticipated by western military planners as an accompaniment to an invasion of Europe.

With this threat, real or otherwise, having long receded, the Eurofighter's original role, using its manoeuvrability and clever weapons systems to perform Battle of Britain-style heroics, has been replaced by something more ambiguous. For critics of the international defence business and its political and military allies, the jet has become the perfect example of a well-connected industry's ability to make over-budget, redundant products and find a market for them regardless. "The Eurofighter is completely out of date," says Susan Willett, a defence analyst and "long-term sceptic" about the jet. "It's a cold-war beast.""

apparently new death machine useless for murdering non-airborne brownies, civilians or otherwise- hence no good for neocolonial warfare..

"As Professor Malcolm Chalmers, a defence economist at Bradford University, points out, "The average voter has much less connection with what works or not in defence than in schools or hospitals." At the same time, British military projects can draw on centuries of national pride about British prowess and ingenuity with weapons."