South Bound
Ok nuances. Chicken and Egg. The original plan was that only if PFI could be proven to work would the EP money be given up. Now of course the EP is strapped for cash so the funding line for a conventional procurement was "withdrawn" which of course means that it can be diverted elsewhere. The fact is that AAR was/is still the priority and the fleet sizing was based on the UK AAR requirement.
All I was questioning was the original comment:
That was given up years ago when they decided there was no requirement for AAR
Which is incorrect.
Where the confusion may lie is that a "core" fleet of FSTA will always be in RAF service and these will be tankers that do AT. If the UK Military needs more AAR or AT then this can be "bought in" to meet the additional requirement. These are the swing fleet a number of which had been planned to be released to the civil market
when not required by the MOD/RAF. But then of course when the planning was done we weren't fighting 2 minor wars and needing every asset we had!!!
And LFFC you are correct. No contract has yet been signed!!!