BAe - I despair
Jackonicko - just a short note on this matter.
I thank you for raising the tone of the discussion by judicious use of national stereotypes. I will accept however that my post was not the most intellectually incisive of comments on this topic. However to be blunt BAe is not currently that good a company. Many of its products are flawed and it appears to be in significant risk of losing every major contract it is bidding for from the new Carrier for the navy to the RAF tanker contract.
The saddest thing about this is that BAe is probably no better (or worse) than any other defence contractor out there. Many of the posts on this board relating to BAe ridicule the company for its apprent incompetance, yet to be blunt I have to ask how much of the difficulties experienced by the various projects are down to BAe and how much down to MOD. To be blunt it often appears to be the blind leading the blind. Many of the current cock-ups are made significantly worse by a disheartening and morale sapping penny pinching enforced by beancounters more concerned with the price of a rivet than getting the best kit for our armed forces.
If anything my post was just a final scream of despair - I want to be able to pick up a newspaper, or talk to one of my friends in the industry/services without being told about how one of the UK's only remaining hi-tech companies has screwed it up once again and has just had to lay off hundreds of people because it has lost a major contract to a foreign company who will provide marginal gear for inflated prices that will only perform to (something approaching) a minimal standard without a stack of expensive "upgrades". If we are going to procure cr@p kit we may as well make sure the money goes to put food on the table of British workers. We must be able to make equipment that works - I would say its not rocket science, except it often is of course. I went to college with people who work(ed) for BAe, they were clever and capable people, yet somehow the company can't seem tot do anything right
I am just sick of not being proud of British manufacturing, of having to look back to before I was born to see something as beautiful (and more importantly effective) as a Hunter or as superior as a Spitfire.
And yes I am Welsh - want to make something of it!!!