Originally Posted by
Lima Juliet
I must admit, I’m surprised they’re not hanging it on Poseidon MRA1?
I'd imagine the integration cost would run to several tens, if not hundreds of millions. Aircraft design authorities and the likes of QinetiQ have customers over a barrel with this, unwittingly aided by risk aversion from DE&S and the MAA over the amount and type of data required to issue a release to service. I expect it'd be far cheaper to buy a stockpile of LRASM, which would also bring interoperability benefits with the US.
This type of argument inevitably ends up with UK industry complaining to ministers, making highly questionable export arguments. [The only states which reflexively buy British tend to be Gulf ones, mainly to keep the price of their US kit down; other customers face a simple choice between a product integrated by design and supported in a single package with the airframe, and a bolt-on UK product with a small user base, a high share of the integration cost and a separate support arrangement.] If ministers side with industry, which let's face it is their default position in these flag-waving days, the RAF is ordered to waste money purchasing integration paperwork instead of buying weapons and has to wait years for the aircraft OEM to do the work.
In this case, as there are no reliable Gulf customers (given the absence of P-8s from the region), it is actually conceivable that the RAF might not have to go through this palaver and could be allowed to buy some LRASM. It'll probably depend on the balance of near-term integration costs with the long-term cost of maintaining two separate missile types in the stockpile.