Originally Posted by
sprucemoose
Ditch the PFI approach at this stage and 101 and 216 won't be seeing a new aircraft for a hell of a lot longer than the delay they're already facing!
Sprucey
If we conventionally procured our new tankers what would be the problem with cancelling this PFI farce? Let's face it, despite BEags assertions about there being only one 21 C tanker, the choice for us falls to one of 2 - The B767 or the A330. You can rule out the A310, (actually last century) none available and too old, and the A400M, too slow for what we require it for. The RAAF, JASDF and the ItAF will all receive their tankers within 4 years of contract award (all about 1 year behind what Airbus and Boeing originally promised). So if we signed this year that would be first delivery in 2010 assuming that the problems will have been ironed out by then and Airoeing deliver on the originally quoted 3 years.
When will we see first delivery of FSTA? Who knows? Afterall this year was when it was supposed to enter RAF service!! With FSTA we
still don't have contract signature with AirRipOff almost 3 years after they were announced as preferred bidder. RuMour has it that both the ECC and elements of DPA want to kill this programme now. Even the government are getting cold feet over PFIs.
Sadly we all know the state of the EP and there is no money. Where do you find circa £2.5B to buy a new fleet of tankers? It is time that the 'Centre' actually took a stand and cancelled a big ticket programme. The options are few, but the front runners have to be the new carriers (and I am actually a supporter of the RN getting them), Astute (but would it save that much), JSF or Typhoon (but again we wouldn't actually save much on procuring them). Sadly it should be the CVFs. If the government still want to be a global player then they should be forced into paying for the kit we need to do their bidding.