SSSETOWTF,
Touche - but the point is that the military types are also blinded to the cost (and in the UK let's look at the Nimrod MRA4, T45, Astute for starters where the numbers of platforms get cut and cut again - driving the unit cost through the ceiling), meaning that they're not always right.
So I'd prefer to listen to the CBO and the GAO.
What's your answer to the discussion earlier in this thread that Dave-B is unnecessary for the USMC as their CONOPS makes no sense? I presume that the RN (assuming that CVF goes ahead) would prefer Dave-C with Cats'n'Traps anyway.
(And no, Harrier-Bows at airshows should not be a KUR.....sorry)
S41