"As usual, the devil will be in the detail. For instance, how much of this shopping list, whilst being funded by MOD core, will come in under the UOR process? The existing Reapers are a UOR programme for Afghanistan, with all the implications that brings for support and long term use outside of Afghan ops. "
Meltchett - that is an extremely good point. Having dealt with Reaper in a previous existence, I don't believe it has gone into core. Therefore MOD isn't paying for these extra airframes, but we do get to find the money to stick it into core when HERRICK ends. Lucky us, we get to make more cuts in a few years time to pay for a capability we're getting now...
Of course the other question not being answered here is "are we doubling the Reaper frames, or the Reaper task lines" - significant capability difference there.