CPN
"too many civvies in Procurement?!
Bolleaux!!!!
The decision makers in DPA are military and very senior, it is their lack of contract awareness and ability that frequently leads to procurement disasters when the vendors run rings round them. Two and a half years in post is also a recipe for disaster in procurement, a short time in which you have to make your mark, so you change things even if they don't need changing and get a tick in the box for the next promotion. Some other poor sod then comes along and has two years to undo the damage, so it goes on, and on and on.
On the White paper, does anyone else share my view that we have been looking in the wrong place for cutbacks in fast jets?
Having read the paper in full, I think that the area that could be hit, and hit hard, is Tornado GR4 and Jaguar. The emphasis on multi role capability and the need to do away with single role platforms was stressed time and time again.
I would not be at all surprised to see Typhoon and JSF continue at full procurement levels and see Jaguar cut very early, Tornado GR4 to reduce substantially when A2G tranche 2 and 3 Typhoon hits and done away with entirely when FOAS enters service as a JSF or Typhoon derivative along with multi cruise missile launch platforms such as Type 45 Destroyer and maybe MR4.
Thoughts anyone?