Mainjafad
Very interesting. £391k for a 6 year contract in the example quoted. Making a case for such an Inverness facility would be easy. Finding £391k is a 5-minute job. The Services routinely "forget" to include much larger requirements and any DE&S project officer should be well versed in delivering it. On one of my last programmes before retiring, the RN said they didn't need a mission trainer so there was no funding granted. They did, it cost £22M and finding that that was off-loaded to the office junior as a half day job. Money isn't the issue I'm afraid. More likely some VSO not wanting to admit the need (probably related to DV's underlying concern). That's the way MoD works - you wait until he's gone, then re-submit and get it approved retrospectively. (On the same programme, an entire new comms system was approved to enter development, 3 years after embodiment). I'm not up to date by any means, but Crowsnest is a good current example. That whole FOAEW/MASC thing stalled for many years for similar reasons. The FOAEW "requirement" was years behind its predecessor, but the PM only found out when conducting interviews to fill posts. He'd spent an entire tour not realising the link between AEW Mk2 > ASaC Mk7 > his upgrade. When something like that happens to an anointed one, the system quietly closes ranks and the front line requirement is forgotten. Sorry, a little cynical but true!