Mr Boffin; Draken;
Most interesting. I thought the most telling point was that it was typical BAE bullying - much like the Hawk T2 deal, threatening to renege on MRA4 back in the day (oh, the irony) etc etc.
My counterfactual question is not, however, answered by this note: what was the contractual Terms of Business Agreement (TOBA) over time? Did it decline? What was the profile? Specifically, could something like this workload have been used instead:
- 2 to 4 T45
- MARS (Fleet Tanker)
- 10 to 12 T26
If so, (and if this is the equivalent cash - T45s at c. £800m each; Fleet Tanker c £2bn?) would this have been a more appropriate fleet mix in 2020 rather than the likely composition? Irrelevant now of course, but it would be interesting to know if this was seriously considered.
S41