I find these types of threads genuinely interesting. So many differing opinions on something (MPA/ASW etc) we’ve done for decades.
But now try to put yourselves in the shoes of some poor DEC SO2 and a DE&S project manager. The loss of MPA means neither has very much experience to draw from, either personal or corporately. The former’s URD is likely to contain a mixture of conflicting requirements and some that defy physics. The latter, because he’s skipped 5 grades, won’t have serviced aircraft or the equipment you discuss, so can’t visualise what the URD’s talking about. And the company will be taking him to the cleaners as that lack of experience means he isn’t properly qualified to sign off the technical and financial approvals, so they’ll blind him with facts and fiction.
The last time I managed a sonics programme, the company were taken aback that some civvy in PE knew what the innards of a sonobuoy looked like, and pulled them up for over-egging a quote. I seem to recall I chopped about 30% from the quote, and got a better performance a year ahead of schedule. Similarly, I once sat listening to a DEC officer listing his “requirements”. No matters how many times you said “increased bandwidth = increased power”, he insisted on a technical spec which doubled the weight due to the sheer quantity of batteries required. Companies have wet dreams over this kind of thing, as it hands blank cheques to them on a plate. A bit like the MRA4 programme.
But hey ho, at least this is being aired on pprune (aka MoD’s primary source of corporate knowledge).