Some of you "doth protest too much" (Shakespeare) and WTF does it matter who I am?
Anyway, back to what we were discussing and once again Biggus is on the money.
Which of these should we scrap when the savings box is being shaken?
Sentry - Nope, NAEW&FC commitment written in stone, critical asset for FJs (Typhoon, F-35, Tornado), also critical for making sure that sitting ducks like Sentinel know that the bad guys are coming.
Reaper - Nope, armed-ISR is the most important asset in today's and future conflicts. Whilst a UOR this could become SCAVENGER in the future or even better armed-ISR assets are procured to replace.
Shadow - Nope, key specialist organic UOR capability.
RIVET JOINT - Nope, key to the special relationship and also for maintaining or global lead in SIGINT.
MRA4 - gone, was going to be even more of a money pit before we got what we so desperately need.
Sentinel - going, one-trick pony of Cold War heritage. Struggles to find its true worth in complex, blurred and insurgent campaigns (which if doctrine is to be believed is the future shape of conflicts).
The thing that really does disturb me is the parochial nature of the arguments from the light-blue and green that fly it - it smacks of "job protectionism" rather than trying to get the best for the Service. As said before, we could bring both UORs into core if we binned this early.
OK, I've looked up the cleared service ceiling and it is 51,000ft; I was wrong on that figure. But Biggus is right about minimising weight to achieve anywhere near 45kft.
iRaven