Thank you ExRigger.
I must be honest and say I don’t know what the MoD think. However, it will be patently obvious that, as one creeps toward the right hand side and upwards, more funding is required to maintain the build standard. It will be equally obvious that an increasing majority of our kit is accelerating toward that point – some has already shot off the scale at the top right corner.
I do know that there are very few sponsors indeed who now monitor this curve with a view to making the correct materiel and financial provision. In effect, MoD policy assumes the bottom line extends indefinitely, and has done for many years now.
Turning to recent discussions on fire/smoke/fumes. As someone holding delegated airworthiness authority, I’ve been fortunate to come across only three serious cases – all on the same a/c type within days of each other. The same people who assumed the “elongated” X axis instructed me not to do anything about the smoke in the cockpit, and denied me funding to fix it. (They were neither engineers nor aircrew). When faced with such crass incompetence and failure of duty of care, you have a choice. Do the right thing, or do what you’re told. I lied, transferred the money from another project and made the aircraft safe. What I did would be almost impossible nowadays because of IPT stovepiping. Because of examples like this, and there are scores, I don’t have the blind faith others do in the MoD’s ability to get it right.