Plenty of vision to the future-a more sustainable, balanced force. without disbanding your armed forces or tax increases for defence purposes(both unlikely for now), changes are the only way to make any kinds of longterm cuts.

As I said, great, how many people in the forces have lost there jobs? how many involved with lynx? A400M 50/50 chance of cancellation, Europes got big money problems and cheaper options WILL be taken- think Spain, France, Greece, so how secure those jobs? and as for Merlin, I am all for an increased number to replace lynes(which will offset job losses there)

true, but I’m not going to wait 5 years for a light that may not come, be only as good for twice the price- i’ll buy the light as i need it now, not rely on a few dying candles

typhoon will carry these wont it? accelerate it along.

Nah mate, I’m an Australian- I believe in saving jobs, but what about the 30-50 thousand soldiers jobs? Some of these could have been saved by rationalisation.
I go on about A330 because thats the future of tanker transport, and each different type scrapped is money saved.
and i wouldn’t be surprised to see an A330 awacs aew in planning- years of history point to joint awacs/tanker/recon/transport (E-3,K/RC-135), that means possible future sales to Saudis, UAE, anyone who buys A330MRTT- and the purchase could be negotiated as settlement instead of A400M buy

My country knows about wasting money on defence procurements(seasprites!!!!) as does yours, and sometimes betting on all the horses to get a trifecta feels good, but doesn’t make economic sense-

for example, we could have bought 12 seahawks instead of seasprites, they would be operational, and the money saved would have payed for the jobs created by the deal 2x over. so which way was better?

The only reason that the tornados are 60% of the fast jet fleet is they have been an endanged species and protected(for no good reason) over the harriers and all else. Britain needs multi-role fighters-ie typhoon, and a REAL CAS aircraft- not a plane kept to prove the money spent on it wasn’t wasted.

Forget NH90s- do it with merlins fleet rationalisations will pay off

you would be gaining awacs to replace E-3s- a AESA like wedgetail could be intergrated on an A330 in short order- just aero and flight testing(savings in flight crew and maintenance traing and contracts-same deal with a smaller number of helicopter types

why upgrade pumas? replace with merlins, wont need to worry for years- already flight training and maintenance programs in place

I meant AEW and SAR sea kings sorry

A400m has to go- savings long term in maintenance and training, and just a great aircraft- the A400M costs more than just the plane-its delays are burning out your transport fleet, meaning spending even more sooner than planned

these things would only be complicated if you let you MoD do it(how can buying some chinooks and then letting them sit for so long be smart)with there history, it would take 20 years-cut the bureaucaratic group in half, make one man responsible with a staff of 5- and pay proper corporate rate- you’d get quality and vision, not someone after a safe job and a pension