Originally Posted by
ATSA1
The list is endless....Didnt the Harriers all have extensive upgrades just before the defence review of 2010 binned them, and sold them off cheap as spares for the USMC?
Nimrod MRA4? An admitedly expensive overrun that was just coming good...
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There is a long established precedent in public spending that what you've spent in the past is of no relevance to budgeting - only what you might have to spend in the future.Hence airfields getting multi-miliion pound upgrades only to be closed as you can make a saving that way. Harrier was the same - the money spent on upgrades was gone, the only concern was that we couldn't afford three fast jet types,so one had to go. Same with MRA4, the question wasn't 'How much have we spent?' but 'How much do we have to spend to get it operational?' - when the answer to that was 'we don't know', it's fate was sealed.