Procurement
Alas the fact we have serving personnel on P8 will have no bearing on procurement. If we do go the route of a new ac, it will use the standard procurement process of Requirement et al. No where is there facility for asking serving members their opinion. To do so would be to solutionise, one must use the procurement process properly. After all, the answer may not be an aircraft!!
Solutionise, the process of writing a requirement around a known product. i.e. I want an aircraft to defend the skies of Britain, therefore I need a fighter. But no, lets do the job properly and examine the requirement closely and look at all the options objectively. Oh look, the answer is a missile defence system, does the same thing only cheaper.
Well that's how it all seemed to me, but that was 14 years ago, it may have changed.
Of two exchange officers I knew, one Brit WSO one USN pilot. The Brit came back and was posted to a maritime sqn, he complained that no one de-briefed him on his return as to what he had learned. The posting was just another posting. The USN chap was a very good pilot, in much the same way his next posting in the US was as a deck officer on a frigate. His experience this side of the pond was of no interest, logic would have thought a training post on VP30, but no. He, of course, had a transferable skill and I, believe, now flies for an airline in the States.
So all of you who think logically about the subject, forget it. It will be done, if at all, by process.
Mind you, Mr Boeing will offer a complete package in a way that Abbey Wood will find hard to resist.