The other thing posted is why did we not buy American instead, well if you go down that route, you lose the skills, designers and engineers to produce a home grown item in the future and suddenly become reliant on buying everything from other countries in the future as you have burnt your bridges, again not a good state of play to be in.

As the second or third largest supplier of arms after IRCC the US and Russia, for a nation that no longer produces indigenous aircraft designs other than the Hawk. Bringing in non local designs such as Sentry, hasn’t exactly hit our design, engineering and skills base hard in reality. BAe Systems are still involved in Typhoon, Hawk, the F35 with Lockheed Martin & with EADS on the A400m as well as various non aviation and civil projects. I also assume that despite not being part of the winning bid for FSTA, BAe will still have a minor support role to play through EADS.

Nostalgia costs !!!

Why didn’t the RAF/MOD look to EAD or dare I say Boeing for a more modern off the shelf design rather than trying to cobble together something from a 60 year old design and airframe. Surely the problems with the AEW variant should have rung alarm bells in the corridors of White Hall or wherever they make these ludicrous decisions !!!

Now if the Isle of Wight could become an offshore island like the Channel Isles, it might be able to have an international airport, tax free and a tax haven for the rich, even its own aircraft register. 😀

Newforest, the Channel Islands are neither Tax Free or a Tax Haven and at present do not have their own aircraft register, though this is being investigated as a revenue line !

For longevity of service, it’s hard to beat the Centurion. I believe the Israelis still have a model in service based on it.

What I’ve read recently about the M1, it appears to have some major flaws, especially with the protection of key components again RPG’s.

Dave they appear to be early Blenheims