Potential Airbus Air Command Vehicle

RE: Potential Airbus Air Command Vehicle

They’ll have to check it for bugs as well, you know what the French are like 😉
😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛 }> 😛

“We who grew up tall and proud, in the shadow of the mushroom cloud.
Convinced our voices can’t be heard, we just want to screem it louder and louder”! – Queen from the song Hammer to Fall

RE: Potential Airbus Air Command Vehicle

this story was on the front page of this fridays (todays) daily telegraph.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/02/15/nplane1…

Blair Force One faces Brown veto
By Andrew Sparrow and Michael Smith
(Filed: 15/02/2002)

GORDON BROWN is seeking to block a Whitehall plan to spend £80 million on a new, secure aircraft for Tony Blair and other official VIPs. The Ministry of Defence wants to commission an armoured Airbus to replace the RAF VC10, which was phased out as a plane for ministerial travel at the end of last year. Downing Street is understood to be on the side of the MoD, which believes that it needs a plane with the security features not available on commercial aircraft. But the Chancellor is sceptical about spending money on a project that has been described within Whitehall as “Blair Force One”. The row has broken out at a time when the Treasury is coming under intense pressure from spending ministers. All government departments have to submit their comprehensive spending review bids to the Chancellor by Monday and haggling will be intense until Mr Brown announces his spending decisions in the summer. For more than 30 years, ministers and members of the Royal Family have been able to use RAF VC10s when flying on missions abroad. But it takes several days to prepare them for VIP use and, with the RAF also using them for air transport and air-to-air refuelling purposes, the MoD decided at the end of last year that it could no longer spare them for non-military travel. One alternative is for the Prime Minister and other former VC10 users to charter a commercial airliner. Mr Blair took a BA 777 when he went to Asia at the start of the year and to Africa last week. But commercial aircraft are not as secure as the VC10, which is equipped with anti-missile defences and armoured plating to protect against small arms fire. The MoD believes that security concerns have changed since September 11 and that in some circumstances it would not be safe for ministers to travel on a commercial plane. The Treasury is not keen on financing a new aircraft because it is estimated that it would only be used for about 20 VIP flights a year. The Chancellor is thought to be arguing that, where there is a security risk, special arrangements could be made. When Mr Blair flew into Afghanistan last month, his party used an RAF Hercules. The proposal is also not being supported by the Royal Household. The Queen and other royal users would have to pay for the plane if they wanted to use it. Ministers and members of the Royal Family can also use Queen’s Flight aircraft for travel. But the Queen’s Flight has only small BAe146 and BAe125 aircraft which do not have the range needed for most ministerial journeys. A Treasury source said: “Presumably this story is linked to next week’s deadline for the spending review bids. “Last time the MoD received its first ever real-terms increase for a decade, which they proclaimed at the time as a huge victory over the parsimonious Treasury.”

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rabie :9

RE: Potential Airbus Air Command Vehicle

No nothing more yet Rabie, they dont have the radio on in the coffee shop where I am now, but they do make damn good coffee 🙂

RE: Potential Airbus Air Command Vehicle

anything more ?

its very posible. the airbus looks like it could be used for a tanker, and an awacs vareint was offered to turkey and australia. persoanlly the uk gov should go out and buy bulk on airbuses for tankers, a UK JSTARS, awacs and comand. unfrtantely we a are destined to have loads of diffrent planes 🙁

rabie :9

RE: Potential Airbus Air Command Vehicle

Thanx for the info…