Fraud and waste must be easier to sniff out with the smaller size of today's forces and computers keeping inventory....surely?
A tale I was once told was of the reason for no MQs on ASI. Apparently someone bemoaned this to a colleague, who was rather surprised as the cost estimate provided was only about £35K per unit. "Really?", replied another, "That's most interesting - the price we were quoted by PSA was £55K per unit....."
A nice little earner for someone? The cost estimate to improve the QRA accommodation at Wattisham was ridiculous - it was pointed out that it would be cheaper to ask Wimpey to build a couple of 4-bedroom houses there as they wouldn't even need to buy the land!!
I wonder whether all those Jaguar mainplanes and a complete Harrier T4 fuselage shell (in zinc chromate) are still in that hangar at Wroughton aerodrome?
I'll bet that there are masses of spares for aircraft no longer in service languishing in various stackers' empires - not to be released in case someone needs them...
