Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Reader's Letter Of The Day

From the FT:

Sir,

The decision of the British government to select the vertical take-off F35B fighter aircraft for the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers is sensible and very significant for the US Marine Corps. As a result of this decision, it is now very unlikely that this version of the aircraft, for which the US Marines are the only other significant customer, will be cancelled.

I wonder, therefore, if they might show their gratitude by selling back or lending us a few of our Harrier aircraft (which we sold to them at 5 per cent of face value) to practise with on our new carriers before we take delivery of our new aircraft towards the end of the decade?

Simon Eccles-Williams, Vice Chairman, Hawkpoint Partners, London.

3 comments:

SumoKing said...

A bluddy awful decision typical of the MOD "we will save 2bn on ships by spending about £5bn extra on planes!"

BAE and the RAF win out against the taxpayer and service personel

Steven_L said...

Practice? Unlike the F35, Harriers are not fly by wire.

Bayard said...

SK, given that the MoD appears to be a vehicle for transferring the maximum amount of public money into private hands for the minimum possible result (if you don't actually make anything, it can't go wrong), they seem to be doing pretty well.