PR11 - latest

[Torque limited]

What's the latest on PR11 - any rumours abound?

Is the latest back door funding for the MOD enough to secure (albeit delayed) the buy of new CH for the RAF?

As SAR-H is now potentially back on the cards is the SK LEP now on the back burner and thus is this money now going back to keep Puma 2 alive? Again good news for RAF SH.

Does that then mean that CHF and the RN will get ME to play with and convert to the Mk4 in order to provide amphibiosity? Good news for FAA.

Does this all mean we won't need to chop yet more trainee pilots from the system? That would be good news.

Discuss.

[chinook240]

I posted this on the Puma Mk 2 thread last week:

from today's Guardian MoD and Treasury agree deal to plug £1bn funding gap | UK news | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/08/ministry-defence-treasury-agree-deal):


Quote:
However, the Treasury has agreed to pay for upgrades to Puma helicopters used by troops in Afghanistan out of the special reserve, a move that would save £250m from the core defence budget.
Doesn't say how many frames though.

Also on the Chinny front:


Quote:
The Treasury has not provided any new money for the defence budget, senior officials said. Instead, plans to buy new Chinook helicopters will be delayed and will not now be delivered until British combat troops have left Afghanistan.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

For which read:

"The MOD has put off buying new chinooks until we have left Afg, in the hope there might be some more money in the budget by then"

which there won't be... wave good by to those chinooks...

[/Cynic]

[Rector16]

Oh how delightfully refreshing - someone who thinks that it's all going to work out fine in the end! God bless you sir!!

Sadly, reality is that PR11 and the £1B shortfall aren't the same thing (one is a multi-year 'plan', one is a gaping hole now). Even the 'solving' of the shortfall isn't going to be good news - just not so much bad news. We'll have to wait until Parliament returns from their long Easter holiday (and you thought that teachers had it easy on the holiday front!!!) to find out what bits they plan to cut as part of PR11 - but I guarantee you that we're about to lose a lot of posts and not gain much kit. Extra aircraft - lovely idea; are you a Mail/Sun reader by any chance?

Keep smiling though! :D

[high spirits]

I predicted this mess last year on the 'future of FAA' thread. The future rotary strategy was based on the RAF getting 22, not 12 chinook prior to giving Merlin to the RN. That strategy (if it ever was a realistic one) is now in tatters. Conveniently, the 'disgusted of yeovil' letters to the telegraph forget this fact, and as a result the RAF are getting accused of all sorts of underhand behaviour. This sort of paranoia was entirely predictable, and the situation can only be resolved by more money - or rotary redundancies.

[Unchecked]

2 things need to be cleared up here and the journalists could help by stating fact rather than what they think the public will show outrage over.

Puma 2 is not serving in Afghanistan.

There is sufficient RW uplift in theatre now.

Both the above guardian quotes seem to suggest otherwise.

And I totally agree with you, hs.