Biggus my experience is the same, however I think this is being addressed.
AFAIK UORs now have 2 years grace before they either get removed or fully incorporated (outside my expertise) on to some platforms.
I also agree that UORs are used to get equipment that is needed long term, this has been going on for many years now and masks issues like under funding and failures in procurement. It's probably a result of great money saving ideas like "just in time" and "fitted for, not with". Unfortunately many of the items purchased by this method could have been brought into service and trained with years ago, but we are skint
and have been for sometime. For example MALE UAV (girly RPVs?) have been in use for a few years with other countries we would traditionally rank below our forces.
The reason I expanded on the UOR nature of Reaper was in response to Chris's post re: satellite links and doing something on our own. These are not an issue as it was purchased for the current situation as an UOR.