JTT & others - how right that the taxpayers & ground troops should be questioning the availability of their local machine. As a 135 jockey, I 'm also keen to see the 902 cut it with the rest in the same role - in terms of capability, my 902 investigations came out fairly even (good view, clever IIDS, noise sig etc) but I'm pleased we're now a lot more "S" than we might have been!
More importantly, TC hits the nail on the head (not for the first time) re "independant advice" when procuring Police aircraft. The "system" means that individual forces & UEOs often have neither the knowledge, ability, humility or remit to accept advice, or collaborate with each other, when buying aircraft. The framework allows companies to sell what they want to sell, not what the customer wants. Get it all under one (HO & PITO) roof & I reckon you'd get a better product at the end of the day. . . I know how I'd like to improve my 135 payload by 100+ kgs, tomorrow!
P.S. Again TC, concur with your "personal prejudice" comment. It'll be interesting to see what happens to a recent decision (as yet un-delivered & already delayed) now that a "person" has moved on!
