Originally Posted by Blighter_Pilot
The question is though - with a planned withdrawal from the East as advertised by the Govt will we really need to introduce 22 new Tac AT / Strat Minus platforms within the reduced UK military?
What will our role be? - if numbers and rumours are to be believed then surely 10 C17s (extra airframes to be procured - second hand?) and 30 C130Js (extra platforms purely for specific roles) will be more than enough airlift for UK PLC?
Especially as we are tied in to an expensive PFI for FSTA - there's your Strat AT and AR platform.
Is the A400M required for Britains future reduced defence role?
I don't think it will be.
The A400M Tardis is expensive and late but it doesn't seem to be a turkey. Better to go with it than throw all that cash away.
We're growing out of the C-130 fast. Even with the imminent pruning it would be better to stick to A400M for it's size and performance/through-life cost benefits over C-130J/C17. Not to mention that although C17 can do rufty-tufty landings like the best of them, its jet engines generally don't like it very much at all.
I would like to see the government tear up the FSTA contract - there must be a hole in it somewhere, or perhaps some sort of overriding national expediency that takes precedent? - and use the A400 for AR while FSTA is robustly renegotiated. Yeah, that's right. Get all RN-SHornet on 'they ass!