Originally Posted by
tigerfish
All of this buy X to save jobs at—- is a false logic. The primary role of the armed services is to protect the U.K. from those that will do it harm. Specific manufacturers viability must come second to that.
so IF for example the latest Blackhawk is adjudged the best that is the one we should buy!
Saving the Leonardo factory at Yeovil must come way down the list. The Mildcat is next to useless.
if necessary build the most suitable aircraft under license at Yeovil. It needs to be able to deliver at least as many fully equipped troops as the Puma.
TF
TF, it's lovely that you think that, but large equipment orders in just about any country I can think of are all about the politics. If you have a domestic capability, then its internal. If you don't, it's international. Whether that's NMH, job shares for F-35, turkey buying SAMs, UAE buying a shiny jet fleet or whatever. A massive chunk of it is political, with the min viable product for the mil capabilities required essentially being the threshold beyond which the politicians don't care about capabilities of the kit (if they even cared before).