And when you consider the cost of each unit it becomes an obscenely expensive mess.
I've taken the advice of the many on this thread and done some research
£3.8 billion for what appears to now be 8 platforms.
Greater than £400 million per platform. And it's now knocking on for a decade late (and will be
if it arrives in 2009).
I accept that it will be a capable asset, but let's face it, it's
main purpose (and the one it was procured for) is to counter a threat that we as a nation don't
currently face.
If the MRA4 was available today, it would be employed as the MR2 currently is, ie in the ISTAR role. And to answer Len's point, the MR2 is being used in that role not because it's the best platform, but because it's the
only platform! And if it's an ISTAR asset we want, we could spend about
about 2% (yes 2%) of the unit cost per frame of the MRA4