E7 Wedgetail order reduction

[Sparts99]

Probably not that simple. The civil servants will have been working under instruction from the politicians and will have explained the ins and outs to them before any contract was signed. I suspect five were ordered as that was the genuine intention based on the military requirement and what the politicians decided was affordable. The manufacturer or system integrator will have covered themselves with penalty clauses to ensure they suffered no losses in case for whatever reason the politicians decided the reduce or cancel the order, as has happened, and to be honest the UK has quite a track record in this. Most failed procurement contracts have failed because of interference or indecision outside the civil service. If there was no cost saving to reducing the order why do that The infrastructure costs still have to be covered, training the extra crews in the grand scheme of the project costs wouldn't be all that much and actually per crew emember would reduce. Just look at what's happening with HS2, what should've been a great project to boost the North and Midlands mired in indecision and political short termism.

[Petepilot]

Probably not that simple. The civil servants will have been working under instruction from the politicians and will have explained the ins and outs to them before any contract was signed. I suspect five were ordered as that was the genuine intention based on the military requirement and what the politicians decided was affordable. The manufacturer or system integrator will have covered themselves with penalty clauses to ensure they suffered no losses in case for whatever reason the politicians decided the reduce or cancel the order, as has happened, and to be honest the UK has quite a track record in this. Most failed procurement contracts have failed because of interference or indecision outside the civil service. If there was no cost saving to reducing the order why do that The infrastructure costs still have to be covered, training the extra crews in the grand scheme of the project costs wouldn't be all that much and actually per crew emember would reduce. Just look at what's happening with HS2, what should've been a great project to boost the North and Midlands mired in indecision and political short termism.

It never is that simple, but as firebird said, it is a f**k-up and with public money. Being ex-railway industry, I ran out of fingers and toes when keeping track of wasted public £billions, but I see now that this industry was not unique when it comes to such mismanagement.

[Pendennis]

And they'll have to store the two sets of unused equipment somewhere, maybe the bean-counters took that into account?

[Unknown74]

Not for the first time that is...........

[nichnt]

Reduce the number of Politicians & use the money to find the 2 Wedgetails which were not bought. Simple.

Unfortunately the people at the MOD f****d up big time, when the singed the contract for the five jets. Even though the cancelled two jets, they still have to pay for them. Not only that, they will also need to pay for the kit that should have gone inside these cancelled two jets. So not to put a finer point on it. The RAF will get three E-7s, but have to pay for all five. Wonderful.

Why not have them built & mothball them for when we need them (which we all know we will at some point in the future). Big hangar at waddo to store them.

[airphotog19]

Reduce the number of Politicians & use the money to find the 2 Wedgetails which were not bought. Simple.

Unfortunately the people at the MOD f****d up big time, when the singed the contract for the five jets. Even though the cancelled two jets, they still have to pay for them. Not only that, they will also need to pay for the kit that should have gone inside these cancelled two jets. So not to put a finer point on it. The RAF will get three E-7s, but have to pay for all five. Wonderful.

Why not have them built & mothball them for when we need them (which we all know we will at some point in the future). Big hangar at waddo to store them.

The Reds are in that big hangar at Waddington so that wouldn't work

[Bucky P]

Have them built and fly them on rotation to keep the hours down on the whole fleet and reliable availability, that's the whole reason for having a larger fleet than actually required! If we need 3, then having a fleet of 5 would ensure there are always 3 available for operations, a fleet of 3 may end up with 1 or possibly 2 available at any time! How many A400's are available at any given time? How many Voyagers are available at any given time? I expect several are out of action due to servicing, maintenance issues, etc, all the time with fleet availability significantly lower than actual fleet numbers!