Originally Posted by Ps Pilot
Are in life service costs still 10 x unit purchase price?
No wonder the country hasn't got a pot to piss in.
Sounds like you might be making the case for the cancel the order and pay the penalty option PP. And you hail from where? Ah yes Blackpool. The jewel of the north west, and darned handy for Warton.
I think you're on to something with that life cycle cost argument though. I can see that one coming out on the next round of MRA4 cost overruns, "See if we claim further enhanced capabilities, we can save money by reducing the fleet size to three aircraft." Which, with development overruns rivalling that of the Space shuttle, any possible way forward on costs will be grabbed.
Maybe I'm out of line comparing the MRA4 to the shuttle. I expect the final MRA$ fleet to be smaller than the shuttle fleet.