[Milsurplus] 1 mo Eb*y / BC-645 aka ABA

[William Donzelli]

> I am under the impression that the British didn't want the Mark IV for
> the same reason they didn't want the B-29.  What they had was good enough
> and the infrastructure to install, retune and maintain was already in
> place.  No need to retrain on newer equipment when the older was still
> serviceable?

Certainly a valid issue, and in my opinion, the one that carries the most
weight.

Mk III and Mk IV were conceived roughly the same time. For some reason,
however, GE (or the Navy) decided to reinvent the package the Mk IV IFF
boxes came in - from the tall British box to the flat GE box. This was a
pretty stupid move on there part.

The British did the wise move, and the Mk III boxes would fall right into
the Mk II mounts.

Perhaps if the Mk IV boxes also could drop in, the transaction would be
fairly smooth. Swap the new boxes in on some date, on all planes. The
ground and ship based interrogators are the easy part - field upgrades,
much like the BN to BP kit.

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org