Originally Posted by
tucumseh
I hope that context explains why the Mk2 not being airworthy was not a commercial matter. In that sense, MoD commercial tend only to be involved once a fault investigation becomes a defect investigation, as the technical issues are by definition settled. Attaining and maintaining airworthiness are areas they seldom get involved in.
Yet it became a MoD Commercial 'crisis' as so few of the basics were set before individual aircraft hit the Mk2 programme. For example, the build standard of the aircraft going into the programme was not set, nor were they set for the final output. This was particularly critical for items or systems that the MoD expected to remain undisturbed or returned with the aircraft on completion.
It may sound like trivia to some but during the strip-down phase of the build anything that was not recognised or thought to be part of the Mk2 output was removed by Boeing personnel. By removed, I mean brutally, with looms being cut to save time rather than using the LRU connectors as one would normally expect. A clause in the contract had the MoD being responsible for such systems marked as GFE and the scale of the problem only became apparent when Boeing started to order new looms from the MoD to make good all the damage to the 'undisturbed' systems. Clearly MoD did not stock a vast amount of AAR-47 wiring harnesses, LRUs, lighting systems or whatever and the only place the MoD could go to was Boeing. The MoD logistics desk officers for the upgrade found themselves fishing for LRUs, looms, sensors, connectors etc out of various bins as Boeing could not source new replacements.
You would think Boeing would know how to look after simple parts, such as transparencies, rotor blades and alike, by not just stacking them on concrete floors in a big heap. Run out of trestles - no problem. Just carry on and order new parts from the MoD at the end when you find the originals trashed.