The nimrod is a good example where people are looking at a headline without doing any in depth research. Parts are purchased on a ‘expected use’ rate – in the case of Nimrod, we’d bought sufficient parts to keep a fleet of IIRC some 15 aircraft flying.
So, we may have needed 4 widgets per year per aircraft to keep it flying (e.g. 60 widgets equals one years worth of stock). If you suddenly deleted the MR2 fleet, and drop to just 3 R1s, you still have 60 widgets in stock, but you suddenly have 20 years worth of stock on hand.
The problem is contracts are placed, and supplies bought based on expected useage rates, which then get thrown out the window when kit is deleted or force levels change, or readiness changes.
Once again I despair at the way that the military are somehow portrayed as poor innocent little lambs in all this, thanks to the incompetent evil civilians messing up. The sooner the Military can admit that they too play a very large part in this mess, the sooner we’ll see real progress. Too often it seems easier to play the ‘a nasty civilian did it’ card than man up and accept that uniformed personnel can screw up too.