Nimrod to go by March

[Biggus]

Getsometimein,

I have no idea where you get your figure of £700 million from, but it has got to be way out, probably by a factor of 10.....

From what I have picked up from generally just being "defence aware"...

Cost of running Lyneham, and therefore savings, have been stated recently in parliament as about £50 million a year..... So, cost per year?

Industry support contract announced for Typhoon for 5 years was about £500 million..... Cost per year again?

Industry costings to support 9 MRA4s for 5 years started off at about £500 million before cuts... Once again, annual costings?

Nimrod MR2 IPT budget, when there were seperate MR2/MRA4 IPTs, to support/maintain the fleet was in terms of 10s of millions, say 30-40.

So, a station costs say £50 million to run, support contracts cost say £50 million, so where dos the rest of your £700 million come from.

Repairing radars, servicing engines, deep maintence will all come under costs borne either by the IPT or the station. We are also talking about 10 odd airframes.....

Sorry, as I said I may be as thick as a thick thing, and please, please understand I am not having a "go" at you personally, I just can't see where the number £700 million comes from.....

I'm not asking you to account for every pound, just some £600 million odd?


By the way, I was of the opinion the RAF was short of TG1 personnel, and several bases with a less operational focus have been running undermanned for years....so your comments reference aircrew and groundcrew may end up the other way around....