Originally Posted by
sandiego89
Oh I do understand that, it does makes sense for keeping industry engaged and warm, and for the political approval and jobs perspective, but undoubtedly adds cost, and when done wrong (Chinook mk3, AJAX vehicles....) can be problematic. .
Its starting to add a lot of cost - largely because it becomes harder to keep industry warm as the military gets ever smaller and the multiples of numbers per order get smaller and smaller. Industry can only be kept warm with constant work. MOD and Govt in general can't seem to grasp this. At some point the numbers will be so small that bespoke will have to go out of the window....and you'll just have to buy off-the-shelf from others with no bespoke mods, just as others do.