Pobjoy
Your summation of the situation is very near the truth, I suspect that some in the RAF & MoD have overestimated the technical competence of the current primary contractor and been misled by this lack of ability to first organise and second maintain/fix the aircraft as has been demonstrated over the past years.
The primary contractor ( and staff ) are now feeling vulnerable as the support contract for the next ten years or so is up for renewal at the end of the year so to ensure a smooth transition this will have to be decided by the late summer.
The big question is will the team from the current contractor man up and work hard to turn out servicable aircraft ( in cooperation with a potential rival for the support contract ) and show themselfs deserving of the support contract or will they see this as an opportunity to try and rubish the performance of the opposition by being obstructive.
The support contract is the big prize in all of this and only time will tell if the next nine months of this glider recovery will be a genuine cooperative effort to get the cadets back into the air at best speed or a game of political dirty tricks with the only aim to secure the ten year support contract.
Last edited by A and C; 7th Jan 2016 at 07:38.