Your words are being echoed around the station, the project appears to have been safe but something happened the week before to make Mr Cameron change his mind.
Its done now but would be nice to find out why
He probably discovered the true state of the aircraft:
- Design and safety issues discovered since the RAF accepted the aircraft in March.
- Mission systems that were obsolete and unreliable.
- An aircraft that could not achieve the quoted range and endurance due to design issues.
- No stores cleance except for sonobuoys.
- A rubbish self defence system (same as Sentinel)
- Wing hardpoints that would probably never be used due to lateral stability issues and that capability was traded away in 2006.
The only thing that could come close to replacing the capability of the MR2 was the AQS970 that in the guise of the 971 had already been flying on MR2.
To scrap the MRA4 was the right decision, but to cut the capability was nuts. That is way the Airships are already looking to hopefully replace the capability by 2020.