B o'A:
"We shall not mention the fact that the requirement didn’t go to open tender due to a certain Somerset company stating that the cost of opening it to competition in the normal sense would double the list price. Cornered market would not be an expression I would use but there you go."
VP:
The reason it didn't go to competition, was simple, and not at all as you say. Reusing the rotables (refurbished) from the existing Lynx saved about £1M per cab.
B o'A:
"The tail and nose, maybe. And, most would consider adding a big seat with springs in the bottom not exactly in the same arena as 'cutting edge crash worthy'."
VP:
Again, not true. The whole structure is new, nose to tail. apart from the rotables virtually the only other bits from the existing Lynx are the windscreens and cabin doors and afew sundry odds and ends. The bathtub structure had to be newly designed to meet the crashworthiness requirements and take the loads from stroking seats. The lift frames had to be redesigned to take the MAUM from 5330kg to 6250kg. The engine deck had to be redesigned to take the GTS800 engines. The panel and interseat console had to be redesigned to take the big displays, new CDNUs, controllers etc, etc.
I wasn't making BOWMAN etc a "selling point" at all, just correcting an earlier post that assumed it wouldn't have it. The same applies to the comment about OSDs. I wasn't trying to be smug, just stating what the OSDs have been set at for years now.