Forgive me, but isn't the issue here that the RAF / MoD have been dishonest, rather than the suitability or otherwise of CWS?
Didn't the RAF/MoD at some point in the past state that, after previous BoI recommendations, CWS would be fitted (SDR 1998 according to DV); then quietly scrap it but not tell anybody? And they scrapped it for budgetary reasons rather than making a case that it wasn't suitable? And they scrapped it by simply not prioritising it 13 times in a row.
If CWS turned out not to be viable after further investigation, then they should have said so, but they never did.
In Hansard 3rd Dec 2013, Sec Def said:
A Tornado traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) has been developed which is expected to achieve initial operating capability by the end of next year.
Which seems to imply that it wasn't ever rejected; it's just taken 15 years to finish being considered.
In everybody except the MoD's head, delaying it for 13 years in a row, then suddenly deciding it's a priority after another fatal
is scrapping it but not telling anybody.
And 13 years worth of Air Force Boards have some questions to answer, as do the Sec Defs.
Can we take their pensions away? Maybe give them to the widows?