It's obviously welcome news that we're going to get new MPAs at all, but my personal joy is tempered by the tiny (inadequate?) number of aircraft, and at another apparent example of buying the latest (unproven and immature) US kit without even considering cheaper and more practical solutions.
Cheaper and more practical solutions... A brief history lesson of the most recent quests for cheaper, more practical and most importantly BRITSH solutions:
Nimrod AEW (Ended up by buying E3D after wasting >1 Billion quid)
Nimrod MRA4 (No further comment needed.)
So you want a competition, where we end up with Sweet FA after millions go into the tendering process.
Personally, I'd rather pay an overseas company to deliver aircraft on time and on budget, than give another penny to BWOS.
We will spend some money, we will get airframes, they will come into service and do the job.
None of this can be said for British Waste Of Space's efforts.
If we'd bought off the shelf in the first place, we'd probably have a lot more P8's than 9.
The 'Nay sayers' said that the P8 was the 'Gold plated solution' - well Dave has admitted the mistake of the 2010 SDSR and we're now getting the gold plated option.