ShotOne
No I'm not. Your statement about no money for a traditional/alternative procurement is wrong; the money was there. The PFI was not confirmed until it was proven that it would realise VFM, something I'm not sure was ever achieved. As for urgent need, well again that's not strictly true. It became an urgent need because the PFI kept slipping to the right. When the FSTA programme started there was a need but it was not urgent. I'm not disputing current dispatch reliability (one would bl**dy well hope so for a brand new aircraft) but considering that nations pursuing a standard procurement started later and received their (more capable?) A330 tankers earlier than the RAF did, I would hardly call it reasonably efficient either! FSTA was supposed to overlap with VC10 and Tristar - it only did because the RAF were forced to run on the VC10 and it only just delivered before the Tristar went out of service. In my opinion that's hardly a model for a PFI.