Jacko,
There are a number of questions about the UK’s P-8A procurement, but the RAF and MoD have proved remarkably unwilling to answer many of these. Comparisons between the P-8A and the ill-starred Nimrod MRA.Mk 4 are discouraged, and there is an absolute refusal to talk about the essentially uncompleted nature of the selection of the Poseidon, and about any alternatives to the P-8A that may have been considered. Nor does there seem to be much appetite to talk about the P-8A’s performance, nor about the troubled Multistatic Active Coherent system upon which the P-8A’s ASW capabilities are to be based, while detailed discussion about the practicality of conducting ASW from high level seem to be similarly frowned upon.
There are any number of reasons why this would be the case, but steering well clear of any sensor performance areas (of which thankfully these days I know absolutely nothing
) there are a couple of interesting and quite separate rocks you might want to peer under...
From a political perspective the guy who ultimately chopped the MRA4, and the LRMPA role from the RAF, was Liam Fox (then Defence Secretary) A little work with Google will throw up some of his quotes from the time, which now in the light of history and the decision to reinstate the capability thru' the P8, look a tad embarrassing for a politician who has not long returned from the wilderness.
Out with politics, but directly related to the decisions made in 2010/2011, most of the focus has been the aircraft, with a little left over for the (seedcorn) aircrew. Cost and manpower wise, they are but the tip of the iceberg...save for a few dozen aircrew, and the basic NCO aircrew training (needed for other types) pretty much the whole capability (2000 to 3000 odd posts) were scrapped and the savings trousered. Even vastly "leaned" a whole ton of capability and resource has to be re-established, ten years down the road from when it was all canned.
And we are talking ASW here, possibly the single most perishable skill in the modern military (which is exactly why the RN will need to feature heavily in the re-introduction of the capability).
Off the top of my head I can think of two very simple reasons why there would be reluctance to discuss any of this, outwith the aircraft and soundbite press releases:
One is simply many challenges arising from the re-establishment of the capability will yet to have been fully resolved, and the other, equally simple, is the impending presence of some very ugly costs.