Originally Posted by
pr00ne
Just how could the RAF (not that they spend the money) actually have achieved better VFM at the time?
As there was a cash shortage it HAD to be on HP. There was not the amount of cash available for an up front purchase of 14 Airbus A330 aircraft, their conversion into tanker/transport configuration, simulators, new hangars, ground support equipment, training, maintenance and support. Now with 75% aircrew and over 50% groundcrew and contractor back up providing the rest, the RAF has a real meaningful capability.
What would you have cut at the time if you wanted to buy all that lot up front?
Pardon my pedantry, but IIRC, at the point that deal was formulated, let alone signed off, hadn't the ever bounteous Dear Leader Brown forever banished boom and bust? What MOD cash shortage at the time?? According to him, everything in the garden was rosy!