Razor
Unfortunately therein lies the problem of the whole PFI deal. Remember that FSTA was supposed (under PFI) to replace the UK's AAR requirement. It was always assumed that AT
"could be chartered" when needed. The FSTA fleet sizing is therefore based on the AAR requirement (and a little bit of core AT) ONLY.
Sadly since this decision was made we have found out that there is a HUGE AT requirement and that civil AT isn't necessarily available and almost certainly wont go into hostile areas (unless you are prepared to charter aircraft from some
cough, cough, 3rd world airlines). If you fleet sized FSTA on the totality of the UK AAR and AT requirement the number would not be 14 - more like 22-ish.
If we carry on with new Liarbours wars of choice we will need the entire FSTA fleet all of the time(in the process solving AirTankers financial problems). We would also have to crew them at a much higher rate than currently planned if they were to be used effectively!! Don't forget we can have the whole fleet if we want, it's just that then there is no 3rd party revenue and "gainshare"
