JJ, ME,
Sorry if I wasn't clearer. My bad.
A helo with a radar dangling out of the side - or perhaps a converted airliner with a dome scabbed on top? Neither sounds good put that way. I had heard that the ASACs SK7 have done a good job in Iraq - but again, perhaps I'm off beam here. And these days they are really a joint asset, not 'RN'. Same as all our ISTAR assets.
What I was getting at is that going cap in hand to the US for a major ISTAR (more modern acronym?) asset just ensures a loss of UK expertise in this area. My view (very probably uninformed) is that we aren't as far behind the US in all the areas as some may think. And we need to remember that in ISTAR, as in all areas, enough might be, well, enough.
E-2 and affordability - again, none of us have the detailed sums, but I've been around enough 'off the shelf' projects to realize that first, there is no product on the 'shelf' - you always end up paying for some development (e.g. Danish Merlins). Second, the US extract a good price for their exports - and the support costs can be eye watering. I'm not arguing that buying US is wrong - but it's certainly not a panacea.
Best Regards as ever,