Siggie,
Fair comment, I seem to remember the Hon BD shedding crocodile tears and then executing a perfect and abrupt turn around, but then again he wasn't alone
My only hope is that writ large from CAS and therefore the AFB is the mantra that (C)ISTAR is the future of the RAF. Therefore, surely it would be folly to give up such a central pillar of the future strategy.
Parochialism and sentimentality are the enemies of progress and it just doesn't make sense to be getting rid of the MRA4 before several other venerable, dated and pass their "sell by date for future ops platforms". As I said before, lets get the RTS sorted, and everything else should follow......please!
As an aside, I would be more amazed if the RN agreed to let the MRA4 wither on the vine at SDSR..........they also have an immense amount riding on the success of this platform, to say otherwise would be a flagrant disregard of the truth.
DFM