I thought that 75% of the Nim fleet was non serviceable anyway due to airframe and fuel system faults. According to air incident research conducted by the BBC, it would seam that the Nimrod fleets have always had issues staying in the air (or should I say being signed off to fly) due to air frame and mainly fuel system issues following the Falkland temp air to air refuel system upgrade now being constantly utilized (plus its a comet with rounded windows).
I do however take your point. Officially taking Nims out of service will then release all the crews (mostly WSOPs) for something else. I do however also see the most cost effective way to do this would be to retrain them on other aircraft roles within the trade specialty where possible and cut the EW side of recruitment if needed. I am of course wanting crewman (so no personal agenda here...
).
Personally. I think the SDSR will be
financially driven, and will leave the services with little or no true capacity. The Coalition Government want drones and UAV's not planes and soldiers. I think we will have a more efficient services, but they will be less effective.
I think the final outcome is a simple arm wrestle between Liam Fox and the exchequer... I get the feeling Fox is buttering us up too much for bad news. He knows he's lost the fight already.
£37bn short over the next 10 years......
Olympics will end up costing how much (£3 to 9bn) plus policing costs of £1bn+... NHS IT project four years overdue and £6bn over. International Aid (Britain has given £8.7 million in development aid to Singapore), whose gdp is 4th in the world, and 46% higher than our own. DFID also paid £40.2 million last year to China, and £312 million to India, the largest single recipient of British aid.
"All budgets have pressure. I don't think there's anything particularly unique about the Ministry of Defense." (Osborne said, 2010)
I'll hope Liam Fox reminds him that it through the armed services Defends the Country including himself and the Government he is representing.
"Yes, there will be difficult decisions ahead – but I will never forget that defense of the realm is the first duty of any government." (David Cameron 2010).
Should someone please put these two people in a room together as they seam to be talking on different pages.
If we
are cutting our forces based on future coalition force deployment and collaborating with other EU nations with regards defense... why not joint fund the Tridents with other EU nations. Or don't we trust them enough? (or don't they trust us?).
With every passing day - we see statements from top military brass condemning the cut proposals and now 25% of the Heli fleet could go! if that happens - not even Crewman will be recruited.
One thing I think everyone is missing is the British Industrial impact these cuts will have. cx'ing new kit and pulling equipment needing spares out of service will have an economic impact on British industry producing them... this leads to jobs cuts which leads to benefit claims... how much will that cost.
DT_Xtremez_15:
