FSTA could be grounded

[The Maintainer]

Anyone else see the typically rubbish reporting in the Mail on Sunday? Not quite sure how the French and Germans are going to ground aircraft owned by a UK-registered company and operated by HM's finest... (unless, of course, we're looking at another 'French secret codes' scandal a la Exocet in the South Atlantic?);)

[MarkD]

maintainer

can you have a look on the MoS website and see if you can find the article, as I'm having no luck.

[mary_hinge]

I read the “article” which I rated poor even against the Daily Mails standard. Quoted Lord D as saying the UK should use German and French tanker assets along with some other Boulox

I’ll have a rummage in the bin and scan a copy if I find it.

MarkD: I can’t find it on WWW either

[The Maintainer]

Sorry - don't think it's on the website. I've got a copy, but I'm not permitted to add attachments to my posts! Obviously Jason Lewis, 'Whitehall Correspondent', had nothing to write about so decided to give Min(DP) a hard time and opted to tie it into FSTA.

[Richae]

Think this is the article..... can't believe I've sunk to the level of search for Mail on Sunday articles on t'interweb.......

News

BLAIR CRONY TO GROUND THE RAF'S TANKER FLEET...

BY JASON LEWIS
505 words
27 November 2005
The Mail on Sunday
049
English
(c) 2005 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved

A CONTROVERSIAL multimillionaire businessman, given a Government job by Tony Blair after donating huge sums to Labour, is at the centre of a row over his plan to privatise the RAF's fleet of refuelling tankers.

Lord Drayson, Labour's Defence Procurement Minister, wants the RAF to rent the crucial aircraft from the French and Germans.

Yet senior RAF officers fear British jets could be left grounded by the £13billion deal to lease the tanker aircraft - a modified version of the A330 Airbus - from Franco-German aerospace firm EADS. Until now the RAF has had its own fleet of tanker aircraft to do the vital job.

They are also worried the deal will strip the service of its independence and hand vital decisions on the deployment of aircraft to a foreign-owned private company. The new aircraft could be withdrawn in a crisis if the French or German governments opposed British military action.

Lord Drayson is one of the Prime Minister's most controversial appointments. His vaccine firm PowderJect was awarded a series of Government contracts and, despite having no track record in politics, he joined the Government after the last Election. He has donated a total of £1million to party coffers.

Now he faces questions over the RAF project under which the new tanker planes - which can also carry troops and equipment - will be rented to private firms when not needed for military operations. The scheme has been beset by delays and there are major doubts that the aircraft will be ready in time for 2010 when they are due to go into service.

The Ministry of Defence and EADS are now in the final stages of negotiating the fine print of the contract and a financing agreement after the firm beat off competition from Boeing and British Aerospace.

But a senior Whitehall official last week questioned the whole idea of private finance initiative (PFI) deals for the supply of military equipment. The official said: 'This is simply a way of keeping the total cost of buying the aircraft off the MoD's budget.

'But by doing this, military planners will be forced to rely on the goodwill of a private company to make sure they have the aircraft they need at the time they need them.' The EADS planes will replace the RAF's fleet of ageing VC10 and TriStar aircraft which are at the 'end of their useful life'.

Declassified MoD documents, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, reveal full details of Government plans. They make it clear 'the RAF will have use of the aircraft when they need them'. But EADS will own and manage the planes.

However, the documents reveal: '...the contractor will be able to earn revenue by using spare aircraft for commercial operations.' The MoD said: 'Our Armed Forces deserve the equipment they require to do their job effectively. This programme will provide them with that and allow them to get on with the job.'

Document MOSM000020051127e1br0002d

[g126]

PFI is the not the way forward. It is only a short term fix. Where I am at the moment we have recently transferred to a PFI scheme from a previously MOD run scheme and we are now feeling the affects, everything is being cut back, worse than before, including the amount of paper we can use which is rediculous. And it is all because the PFI need to save money.

The PFI scheme may make short term finacial sense and although it may seem like a good idea to rent them out when not in use, can we actually see a time when they will not be in use, especially if they are going to be used in an AT role, when the AT fleet is overstretched as it is. This will lead to the aircraft being rented out to cover costs when in reality the aircraft will be required for operations.

Although if it is the only way of us having the aircraft then we will have to make do. A shame though.

[MarkD]

Well - if BAE Systems had gone in with the others into EADS, it wouldn't be a Franco German company. Instead they just went with their 20% airbus stake so they could keep the dream of being swallowed by Boeing alive.

That said - this FSTA stuff is getting more ridiculous with every minute.

[The Gorilla]

Lord Drayson is controversial and the facts are that the UK will not own the assets but merely rent them. It will take a cast iron contract to ensure we have priority in all future conflicts. A contract that won't ever be worth the paper it is written upon. Right now we can't even persuade Europe to let us have some extra natural gas.

2010 for FSTA? In your dreams..