It makes you wonder.
I find it irritating in the extreme how some of these characters talk with such apparent authority and condescending arrogance, when in reality they have little or no grasp of key facts which should influence their views.
As an example, he tries to make a point about there being 2500+ of C130s around in the world, which is therefore good for commonality and interoperability, whilst being seemingly completely ignorant of the fact that the UK C130Js* are very different to the huge numbers of 1950/60s generation of C130 he refers to - and only 200 or so C130Js have been built so far - about the same as A400M orders today. Some more C130Js are on order, but this is 10-15 years after its introduction.
It is not possible for Gilbert to argue this is a trivial error in his facts - it shows a fundamental lack of understanding that is key to his argument.
Given he demonstrably has poor subject knowledge - one can only speculate as to why he therefore seems to care about C130 vs A400M vs C17 (the latter of which isn't a practical tactical option for the UK anyway). Either in Boeings pocket, or perhaps Marshalls in Cambridge, whose nice line in the C130J support business looks less certain post SDSR.
* obviously the Ks are irrelevant in this debate
Last edited by JFZ90; 21st Nov 2010 at 17:02.