Squirrel
Squirrel
1) No domestic user may be problematic, but perhaps not at the price that these could be offered for. I suspect that ITAR would be the stumbling block.
2) Are you seriously suggesting that MRA4 was incapable of getting a MAR? I suspect the MRA4 would have made a decent replacement for the now very old 1-11s.
3) The RJ may be the right option. An R5 may well have been MUCH cheaper, especially when we already own airframes that will otherwise cost money to scrap. In any case, the question isn't "Why isn't it being done", it's has it been properly examined. I suspect that the scrapping of MRA4 is being done with indecent haste and without proper examination of the alternatives.
4) A great deal of MRA4 money has been spent. The cost of using them above and beyond what has already been saved (and that cannot be recovered) is, in this context, the uncommitted money.