Re: The proposed two Royal Navy 'super carriers'

In message <zOGdnc1Q254Z227eRVn-rg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Kevin Brooks <brooksvmi@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
"Paul J. Adam" <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:+z7yXZIvel8DFwDi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Absolutely right, Kevin. You know better than the UK's Secretary of State
for Defence; better than the Parliamentary Select Committee for Defence;
better than the Armed Forces Minister; and so it goes.

Yeah,

Okay - just wanted to confirm that. So

being as you folks are doing a lot of blustering on the issue while
continuing to hold your hands out for every scrap of contracted work value
you can get, value which exceeds your monetary contribution, I don't see
this as a big issue.

Isn't it _pleasant_ to be part of an integrated team, working together towards a common goal?

Of course, if y'all really feel slighted, you can
indeed back out and find another aircraft to replace your Harriers.

Always an option, including simply not replacing them.

..US
firms can undoubtedly use the work that you would free up, and the loss of a
whopping 150 aircraft order in a program that is projected to exceed 3000
when the export orders are considered (and yes, nations will still buy the
F-35 even if the UK backs out) won't be a major issue.

In other words, we need not have bothered joining the program? Nice to know.

e can't
maintain the aircraft. Go explain it in Westminster and Abbey Wood where
they lack your insight and wisdom.

But who is going to explain it to the folks at Warton, and the RR folks who
will be producing the lift-fan systems?

It's an easy win for the Treasury, who can blame it on "US intransigence" and carve another chunk out of the defence budget to be sacrificed at the altar of the Great God Schoolsandhospitals. The US will still be buying enough F-35Bs that Rolls-Royce won't feel too much pain, while Warton may - if they're lucky - get Tranche 3 Eurofighter as a sweetener, since bailing out of that would be significantly more expensive in cancellation costs. Other work? Well, if you could find someone else to do it faster, cheaper, better, why aren't they doing it?

Again, lots of
bluster, but when it comes to generating more income than you are laying out
in contributions and purchases, y'all are not that dumb.

Don't you believe it. We're stuck with a major squeeze between rising operational costs, signed-and-sealed contracts like Eurofighter coming due, block obsolescence of some systems that are actually being heavily used at the pointy end, and one issue is the massive oversupply of combat aircraft we're supposedly buying: just what are we meant to *do* with 232 Typhoons and 150 JSF? As things stand, a third of the Eurofighters are slated to go directly from the production line into shrinkwrapped 'attrition reserve'; at least the US had the decency to fly its aircraft around a little, even drop a few bombs in a few places, before consigning them to AMARC. At a point where the Army's infantry is suffering seriously overstretch and the Navy's "harmony guidelines" are a bad joke, cutting some pointy-nose fast-movers from such an overstretch is politically a no-brainer for the Treasury.

Also, saying "BAE SYSTEMS gets work" doesn't mean the UK Exchequer automatically sees any benefit from a lot of the work: for one example, if BAE SYSTEMS wins the contract for the countermeasures fit, the work goes to the former Tracor plant in Texas rather than anywhere in the UK. Not many UK votes to be had by buying jobs in Austin...

And if there *are* complaints about how jobs are being lost, there's always the "blame the US" gambit.

--
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Julius Caesar I:2

Paul J. Adam MainBox<at>jrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk
.

Relevant Pages

  • Indias Light Combat Aircraft: When duds begin to fly
    ... The Defence Research and Development Organisation, ... Light Combat Aircraft, the Tejas in another leading national ... The article points out that the LCA project was sanctioned in 1983 at ... The Eurofighter programme is a project of a consortium that includes ...
    (soc.culture.indian)
  • Re: The proposed two Royal Navy super carriers
    ... Lord Drayson, the Defence Procurement Minister, has made the battle over ... handicapped if we don't see this technology transfer managed in the way ... His response to a Parliamentary written question on the subject of JSF shows further sign of the UK government and Ministry of Defence hardening their position on the issue of technology transfer and sovereignty over the aircraft - known as the Joint Combat Aircraft under the UK programme. ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: The proposed two Royal Navy super carriers
    ... providing components for thousands of aircraft that the RAF/RN are NOT ... engineered and built at the BAE Systems Samlesbury site...BAE ... Prognostics Health Management integration and Electro ... Nashua, NH, facility, BAE Systems is responsible for the F-35 JSF's ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: The proposed two Royal Navy super carriers
    ... Lord Drayson, the Defence Procurement Minister, has made the battle over ... handicapped if we don't see this technology transfer managed in the way ... sovereignty over the aircraft - known as the Joint Combat Aircraft ... contracts to go to other suppliers? ...
    (sci.military.naval)
  • Re: The proposed two Royal Navy super carriers
    ... providing components for thousands of aircraft that the RAF/RN are NOT ... *owns* BAE Systems North America). ... Prognostics Health Management integration and ... Then there is Smiths, which says, "Smiths has continued to win key ...
    (sci.military.naval)