just the same old story that we did not buy enough spares
Southbound, true that we never bought enough spares, but there were spares galore scaled when it was the original 72 AH in the competition. After the Apache had won, the operational numbers were cut to 48, the training was removed entirely and left to the PFI vultures, and guess what - the spares holdings were decimated to accomodate the 5 year Contractors Spares Package (CSP). Easy enough to take a pop at Wastelands, but no-one in Main Building figured on the most capable asset in the Army inventory having to go to war, everyone just figured on the "Pimms on the lawn at Wallop" spares attrition rate. Look on the Nimrod thread for a hint at the culpable negligence within MoD (PE) (as it was then) in mismanaging this acquisition.