From all of the MRA4 banter on the Forum I thought I'd do some investigation of costs from NAO reports and other press articles and found some shocking facts:
QEII Class CVF £1.8Bn overbudget and expected 1 year late so far (ISD 2016)
Nimrod MRA4 £800M overbudget and was expected 9 years late (never made it into service)
Type 45 £1.5Bn overbudget and 3 years late (ISD 2010)
ASTUTE Boats 1-3 £1.5Bn overbudget and 4 years late (ISD 2010)
AJT Hawk £30M underbudget but 1 year late (ISD 2010)
Typhoon £2.3Bn overbudget from Main Gate and 4.5 years late (ISD 2003) without full operational clearance – first able to sit QRA in 2007 (4 years later)
Harrier GR5 ISD 1989 without full operational clearance, unable Op GRANBY in 1991 (still no weapons clearance) – limited ops with very limited recce capability from 1992 for Op WARDEN. 25mm cannon never delivered throughout service life from GR5 to GR9. First decent capability delivered for Bosnia in 1995 some 6 years after ISD. Unquantifiable costs as UK pulled out of development program in 1975 and then rejoined once the US had done all the development – rejoining the program allegedly cost about £280M.
Tornado (ADV) F2 into service with concrete in nose for ballast for no RADAR (ISD 1984). RADAR finally delivered 4 years late and 60% overbudget. Tornado F2 found to be seriously lacking in medium-high level performance so Tornado F3 developed and delivered from 1985 – increased re-heat thrust and extra AIM-9L launchers. Unit cost per aircraft including R&D was estimated at £42M* each at 1979 prices!
* taken from Land-Based Air versus Carrier-Borne Air ? Real Costs and Achievements over 40 Years The Phoenix Think Tank
Nimrod AEW - never entered service and rumoured to have cost between £1-5Bn.
Now I don't mind trying to support British Industry, but the above is taking the wee-wee if you ask me! When my pay is frozen, we're all staring redundancy in the face for yet another time (all to pay for the cost over runs in the equipment program over the past 30 years) and we're consistently accepting equipment into service that is quite frankly not up to scratch, when is "enough is enough".
Dr Fox, Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg or maybe even your opposition - if you or your advisors read these threads, please can you start investigating this horrific squandering of tax payer's cash and gradual raping of HMForces? I believe the MRA4 should become the catalyst for the time for this "Gravy Train" to stop.
iRaven