GrahamO nobody batted an eyelid when Typhoon became over budget, in fact Typhoon is the most expensive over budget aircraft the UK has had. A400m, JSF all well over the initial quoted price
Agreed, but as we all one realise, two, three, four or even five 'wrongs' do not make the sixth right. The Armed Forces have to start living within a Budget somewhere and it would appear that Nimrod is a start. As I have posted earlier, it is by no means certain that the axe has been put away and further Programmes may yet suffer.
As to the point about Puma going first, isn't that used to ferry ground forces who are suffering huge losses if they go by road ?
Cancelling Puma could be interpreted as 'guys on the ground continue to die as RAF opt to keep non-working, massively overbudget, years late project alive rather than save lives'.
Grossly unfair characterisation I am sure, but who would want to explain how essential the MRA4 is to an infantrymans widow, when a Puma could have saved their life, as MRA4 would have had negligible effect on ground movement safety.
Nobody would want to make that call.