Goodbye old girl

[SkippyBing]

so why a gap??

Because we're broke, despite which the government is overspending by about £3 Billion a week...

[Nigel Edwards]

I heartily recommend you don't go sailing outside 200nms offshore and need rescuing. The Sea King / Merlin might get there, but it can take hours to find you which is outside their fuel cabability. What we need is some sort of maritime patrol aircraft that in addition to hunting submarines also finds surface contacts no matter how small. Nimrod was scrambled this week on just such a job west of the Scillys.

Skippybing is correct, capability gap = no dosh. Good job we don't live on an island isn't it?

Rant off, sorry fellas.

Best wishes

Nige

[John]

That's an absolute cracker!!!!

Kind regards

John

[NigelC]

Three x RC135

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... -deal.html

[John]

They might be good, but they sure ain't purdy!

John

[Garry Russell]

When I said why the gap..I now it's money...but that's not what I mean.... what I'm meaning is why the gap??..it can't be allowed to happen as the money could be found, given the will

So again I say Why the gap??

[SkippyBing]

Put it this way, the governement are currently borrowing £6000 a second, so any saving is a good one. The number of potential voters they're f****ng off with this is probably in single digits, whereas saving an equivalent amount of money by not handing it out to the Iceland shopping, client state they've cultured over the last decade could cost them a marginal.

[Chris558]

What the R1s do can't be that important at the moment then. As Garry says, we either NEED such a capability - which means ALL the time, not just when money permits, or we don't. It's like saying, "Oh we can't fight the war today, cash is low."

After March, they'll be no maritime recci role until the MR4. Just hope russia doesn't take advantage.

[SkippyBing]

It's like saying, "Oh we can't fight the war today, cash is low."

Cicero pointed out in the final days of the Roman republic - 'The sinews of war are infinite money', except he did it in Latin. And it's still true today, heck that was Regan's tactic for winning the Cold War, bankrupt the USSR, and it pretty much worked.
When you're bankrupt you have to make some hard decisions about what you can afford to do, the UK is pretty much bankrupt. You may not agree with the decisions the government is making but as there's something of the order of a 20% cut across all government departments what do you suggest MoD cut instead?
As for the R1s I believe the plan is for the RC-135s to be on line before the final one is retired, they tend to operate like ships with only one serviceable at any one time and the others going into or out of refit.

[Garry Russell]

I wish I could remeber where i read it

The retirement was one R1 already retired and the other two by March with a 4 and a half year gap

Can't vouch for the authenticity