Originally Posted by
DCThumb
The deal was simple: rent for 5 years = $100m dollars (made up numbers)
Buy outright = $150m dollars. Therefore 'cheaper' to lease them.
However, after the hours were overflown, and the lease was extended, they cost $450m dollars.
Like all the other PFIs and contracts of that era, a short term fix that saddles the bill payer with higher costs later down the line, presumably on another government/chancellors watch!
DCT, yes, we exceeded the mileage allowance on the lease deal because some prat decided it was a good idea to pacify Afghanistan.
We only leased for 5 years until we replaced them with the A400 IIRC.
Now, if someone had the balls, we should consider cancelling A400 and just have the C17.