Originally Posted by
SATCOS WHIPPING BOY
Thanks Pr00ne, spot on. and the argument extends far beyond just T1 fleet and old aircraft numbers.
How many time do we see " oh that Lightning is too expensive, for that money we could have had 10 x ?? (F16 / F18/F15 insert what is flavour of the day on the BBC). What folk fail to realise is you then need 10 x more pilots, 10 x more engineers, 10 x more spaces to hangar the aircraft etc. How that translates back through the pipeline to how many trainees you need to get to the 10 x frontline qualified pilots ( and WSOs as well) to occupy this vast number of airframes.
Rather like a certain unlamented CDS of the early 1960s who used to slap down 5 x Buccaneer photos and 1 x TSR-2 photo, claiming "You could have 5 of these for the same price as 1 of those" - clearly forgetting you'd need 5 x pilots, 5 x navigators/observers, more engineers, hangars etc. etc.