I’m not saying there wasnt going to be a peace dividend…. all i was saying was that with smarter spending decisions, the 2011 BAF could be more towards 1990 levels…. somewhere in between?

As for sneering, I refer to a more global sneering at American equipment on this forum by various British and European posters… it was NOT directed directly at you PPP…. more to the kind of posters along the lines of “they still use leaf springs in cars” kind of top gear sneering at anything if its….AMERICAN!!! I mean realistically, are people going to continue to defend the stupid decisions taken by the British MoD and various governments?

How much money on Chinook HC3s that sat there for how long?

How much money was spent on the MRA4s?

How much on FSTA?

On the Wildcat?

Various armoured vehicle acquisition programmes?

how much of the money wasted on these and other programmes would it have taken to save JFH? Various warships of the RN? Various BA units?

There are other ways to keep jobs and capital in country while buying established systems and getting more for less(as long as its not attempted to integrate too many “systems” and “changes” to make the product “perfect”)

Local and licenced production?
Cost offsets?

It works for numerous countries….

Some money and skill is maintained in country….while making savings in design and actual cost of the product….which can be spent on maintaining capabilities and size….or the social programmes that are often the reason behind defence cuts in the first place.

What P-8 !!! when the Nimrod replacement program was selected the USN had no intention of doing its P-3 replacement due to them expectiing the P-3s to soldier on in the post cold war environment. If there was a possibility of a joint program within the timeframe we needed for a Nimrod replacement then we would have done a joint program. By the time the USN realised its P3s were being used up faster than expected and that LM had cherry picked the better reserve examples for export that then then moved the P8 program ip the schedule by which time the UK was well into the Nimrod MRA4 program.[/QUOTE]

Maybe the case, but buying P-3s or SLEPing the Mk2 Nimrods would of been preferable to an over ambitious program that kept a few people at BAe in work but ultimately the deal kept involving fewer and fewer airframes to the point it was ridiculous and then it got cancelled. Just a few more realistic expectations of the MRA4 would have resulted in having the aircraft in service…instead of being the victim of cuts half brought about because the budget of the project had blown out so bad. Just like our Seasprite disaster, sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on.

Its certainly sad to see the UK waste so much money on chasing perfect capabilities instead of good enough….. of course in a perfect world our armed forces should have the very best…. but if you add up all the money wasted by the UK MoD on ridiculous procurement programs they wouldn’t be in such a mess

how much money could of been saved by SLEPing old Nimrod Mk2 until P-8 is ready or purchasing P-3s as an interim would surely have been cheaper than the MRA-4 debacle.

Same goes for various armoured vehicle replacement programs…

ridiculous amounts of money spent on the lynx wildcat… seahawks would of provided massive savings…

sometimes the pride of having a UK built and designed system actually leads to the UK losing the capability altoether…

sometimes the money spent on keeping defence jobs could be better spent on purchasing PROVEN systems and the savings spent on employment opportunities in other areas…at least that way the capability is maintained!!!

so sad to see the difference in the 1990 British Armed Forces and 2011 version…. and what it could of been if some savings had been made by the brass… it would of cot less pride than the alternative!!!

Sorry Scooter but seriously mate….
If I was the RAF I wouldnt even mention a Typhoon/Tornado replacement…
but really i cant see the UK ever getting the F-35 without an increase in defence budget
more than likely rafales or something like super hornet.

Any photos or idea of which airframe?