The arguement of what to buy will be driven by one major factor - cost of ownership. The P8 is an expensive first world capability, we are no longer in that league and can not afford to own enough platforms to provide a viable force capable of several concurrent ops including soveriegn ops.
Unless the rules have changed UORs are funded to support an operation....what operation are we currently involved in that would allow such an acquistion.
The E3 experience has shown us that developing and deploying our own capabilities on Boeing platforms requires an additional expensive premium. RJ is not so bad as we have bought into the program and as such we get the regular upgrades. I think a P8 acquisition would unfortunately be more like E3 than RJ.
US R&D solves US problems....we have allowed our R&D capability to fade. The P8 option will snuff the residual capability out.
The RJ experience has shown how massively expensive training crews in the states is. I believe it has cost more than twice the amount originally budgeted, and I fear they are still not fully manned with a UK based trg solution still not in place.
Why will a Sea Herc, C27J, Saab, Airbus 235/95 or a Q400 not last 50 years?