Originally Posted by
Buster15
That is far too sensible an idea. It appears to me that they could not even wait until the end of March to retire them as planned.
Thats an interesting comment and one that had struck me as well. If you go back a few years there was definitely precedent for types to be retained and flown right up until OSD and sometimes beyond. The Lightning is one example, where in the case of both 5 and 11 squadrons they flew on well past the formal squadron stand downs. Nowadays I expect it comes down to MAA regs and the nature of the support agreements in place with BAES, in that ANY extension of flying past 31st March would probably come at a eye-watering cost!