Roland
you assume that the requirement has to be met 100% otherwise it's not useful
I disagree
e.g an MRA that can fly for 8 hours on patrol may not fit your desired spec of 12 hours but its still better than nothing - it's not wasted money at all
The real issue is that we have no capability AT ALL - and that is truly scarey
Trying to get the politicians to go back to Cold War standards & capabilities is, I'm afraid, a real loser