PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - James Blunt: Britain's failure to get troops into battle (theatre) is pitiful
Old 7th Mar 2012, 12:58
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foldingwings
 
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Nurse

Thing is though its a problem that could have been avoided if senior airforce officers had supported the transport fleet and insisted on a straight buy to replace the VC10/tristar fleet instead of wasting years trying to sort a contract out for a PFI.
I'm not sure that the issue of PFI can be laid at our air masters' collective feet. PFI is something that was forced on MOD by a previous government driven particularly by the Treasury who also mandate what and what not has the funding to continue with its procurement path during each spending round debate each year. Most programme delays are caused by the Treasury withdrawing funding - take the Typhoon gun debacle as a prime example!

So whilst the Army (and the ex-Army in Blunt's case - I wonder if they took the p*ss out of him with that name when he was serving) can and will blame the RAF it is not totally the RAF's fault (although I accept that perhaps more concentration on our AT fleet might have been beneficial - ah the wonder of hindsight!)

Foldie

PS. Remember, under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the MOD (and therefore the fighting Services) were only equipped to be committed to one medium scale conflict at any one time. But those 2 a**holes didn't read that chapter and committed us to Iraq and Afghan at the same time (But Brown, when Chancellor, reneged on his promise to fund the wars from the Govt Contingency Fund, rather than the MOD purse) without equipping us so to do and, some might say, to enhance their political standing with our allies! So don't blame the RAF - you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, although we have often saved the day by doing just that!
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