What a delicious irony!
The UK manufactures [carlsberg]probably the best[/carlsberg] SAR helicopter in the world, in the shape of the AW101, and shortlists the S-92 and the Super Puma.
Yes, yes, I know, it's the bidders' choice, and we're selecting bidders to run a SAR service, not aircraft. And we're doing that because it has to be a PFI.
Remind me again, why do we want to go down the PFI route?
From April it's no longer 'off book spending', and aren't there some difficulties in the financial markets that make PFIs a tad tricky, at the mo?
Haven't PFIs been discredited enough yet?
Is it really so vital to funnel taxpayers money into shareholder profit for the bid teams that we need to procure the wrong aircraft and flush a gold standard (military run, not-for-profit) SAR operation down the toilet?
Or am I being naive again?