Hooray! More kit and a good capability. I can't wait
Well that is all well and good, buying everyone else's cast offs is not exactly building in longevity to the fleet, no doubt it is a capable airframe, but one wonders how much shelf life it has left in it before one is looking for another replacement.
Somewhere down the line the US Military must have deemed them to be getting long in the tooth to be releasing them from service..
I often wonder especially with the predicament in the transport fleet with the aging VC10s etc why the MOD simply do not just purchase or lease as is the norm a load of the 737-900 series aircraft from Airlines that have gone to the wall and are currently stored at Lasham........ A cheap (in this time of excessive Civilian fleets) alternative of low houred transports, the saving in the fuel budget alone would be staggering over the VC10 and they could then be moved on at a later date back into the Civilian market.
One wonders when uniforms will be sourced from the Army Navy surplus stores