Charlie Luncher,
"At least MRA4 is a capability step forward unlike the P8 - one forward in airframe at least two back in gear."
Care to elaborate?
The conventional wisdom has always been that 'buying American' is best, and the "scrap MRA4, buy P-8 instead" argument has been trotted out ad nauseam, and seems to be widely (if uncritically) accepted.
Don't the two jets use a VERY similar mission system? Wouldn't that support that conventional wisdom?
Or is it the case that weight/CG considerations mean that the P-8 has had too much useful gear omitted/removed, and that it can't carry anything like the same load of weapons and buoys?
And is the airframe really a step forward? Is it suitable for the kind of low level prosecution of ASW that the Nimrod and P-3 can do? Or is that no longer relevant?
What awkward questions should one be asking of P-8?