By 1942, it was becoming clear that Junkers' candidate for the important Bomber B program, the Ju 288, was not going to be ready soon and that the Ju 88 was increasingly at the mercy of rapidly improving RAF and Soviet VVS fighters. The RLM finally decided that even the small gains in performance in the Ju 88B were worth considering and asked Junkers for an improved aircraft as the Ju 188.