Originally Posted by
GeeRam
Rachel from Accounts won't be looking down the back of her purse to fund it, but yes, we'd be a long way back in the queue and would be decades away from in-service.
Probably better off jumping in with many other European countries and ordering some IRIS-T systems, which maybe only medium range compared to Patriot and Arrow 3 systems, but better to have something rather than the nothing we currently have, although isn't there a land-based system already on the market that uses the same Astor 30 missiles used in the T45, which might make more sense to the UK?
Why bother introducing a new system when we already have Sky Sabre / Land Ceptor and which could benefit from the soon to be introduced CAMM-ER missile? Buying more of the same is always cheaper than introducing a new system.
The land based Aster 30 system is SAMP/T which the French, Italians and Ukrainians use and who are crying out for increased missile production.
Everybody has the same problem - upscaling their production quickly.