Airworthiness
Chugalug2
You and others are quite right to point to money as the root cause of the airworthiness cycle being broken - even the spokesman "nominated" by MOD for last weeks news items, Andrew Brooks, said: "Can it (the MR2) become unsafe because it's too old for the job - certainly, and if you've got miles and miles of piping there isn't the capability to take the aeroplane away and completely re-pipe it because dare I say it the MOD is not allowed to spend the money it should be spending (my bold)." Well we know it isn't just piping but there is plenty of public domain evidence that the last part of the statement is correct. As different parts of his interview went out at different times I am not sure whether this portion of the interview was ever seen.
One part of his interview which I believe was used was: "I think the Ministry has no option. The Nimrod is crucial in Afghanistan and Iraq to identifying intelligence, to help the troops on the ground. If you pull it out the troops on the ground are going to be blind. It's that sort of decision. I don't think they have any choice unless it really was falling out of the sky (my bold). The pressure to keep it there is intense." I am sure the irony of this statement will not be lost to anyone.
JB