Mancowboy, well put, this is the point I have said on other forums. Added to that where is all the aircraft experience on these old American aircraft within this country, where are all the spares/Design support,ground equipment/specialist tooling and Air Publications coming from, then ask the Sentry guys/gals about how long it takes to get these items and how much it costs, then throw in ITAR. How much are these old converted jets going to cost overall as the MOD is allready asking for something different with CFM engines and what equipment will go inside ours, will we end up with another expensive Chinook farce while we try to get it all to work with an old design.
These aircraft are all different as well as the MRA4 pressure shells were slated for, again ask the Sentry guys/gals about how each aircraft is different and then decide wether buying older aircraft from the states is still viable.
One final thing, when these 'new' aircraft arrive how much is it going to cost to build new hangars for it or convert the original one.