Originally Posted by
ORAC
couldn’t afford to replace or man the SHar.
I think one has to place the FAA's inability to support SHAR in context.
The policy whereby all Air Systems support funding was transferred to the RAF (AMSO at the time) meant the FAA lost control of its own funding. AMSO took over all procurement. (You think MoD's procurers do the procurement?!)
AMSO immediately lumped the two pots into one, and said 'First come, first served'. There was a very long queue of RAF 'requirements', but few if any FAA because they didn't have a physical presence for anyone to actually get in the queue. They'd been told to butt out and let AMSO run the show.
Within a short time the SHAR fleet was down to half a squadron fitted with (e.g.) their full nav fit. To generate more funding for the queue AMSO had simply scrapped it, changing its classification from 'repairable' to 'consumable'. I had to give evidence to a BoI about why a SHAR didn't have the kit necessary to find its way home after a major problem. Most of the RN were completely oblivious to these goings on. One example among scores. SHAR never recovered.
As an important aside, this squandering of money on what was desirable, not what had been bid for and approved, is what led directly to Nimrod MRA4 being scrapped. AMSO (by now AML) would no longer deliver what the MRA4 programme had been told to assume they would. (Setting aside for a moment that there was no valid approval to proceed with a Nimrod upgrade).