Originally Posted by
snapper41
it wouldn’t be a politician who makes the decision - it would be CAS. Politicians give him the money, but it’s up to him how he spends it.
If only this were true. Unfortunately, myself and many former colleagues have been on the wrong end of political decisions to award major contracts to companies in Ministers' constituencies who haven't even bid for the job. One clue is when 'industrial impact' papers are demanded by the approvals committee, and they be written by anyone but the person employed to understand the issues.
I suspect another subtlety at play is that, according to MoD rules, the associated risks are being borne personally by the Secretary of State. Whether they actually are or not hasn't been revealed. This is directly linked to assurances given to the North Wales Coroner that the Hawk T.1 would be modified to make it ALARP. Now that it's within 5 years of the OSD, many will be trying to break that promise, in particular the Treasury.
The squadron seems to be recovering from its much publicised woes, and I'd hate to see them go. But the numbers won't look good to beancounters, now that RAFAT are bearing the vast majority of the cost of keeping the T.1/1A in service. (And we already know much of the basic work isn't being done). They were easier to justify when part of a much larger fleet. And while I wouldn't claim to know much about such things, my guess is the decision to move them out of 22 (Trg) Group a few years ago left 1 Group with a major headache on priorities. Officially/logically it's the front line fleets, but unofficially there's huge pressure for RAFAT to fly. Perhaps time for them to be wholly funded by public donation. After all, albeit on a smaller scale, this is the only reason a certain Army unit can fulfill one of its primary roles. Perhaps Little Donny can step in, in exchange for the Open at Turnberry.