It’s not often that you expect clothes shopping in Covent Garden to turn into a lesson on defence procurement. But as I emerged from Reiss feeling pleased with my new acquisitions, what should I see above my head but the Royal Air Force flaunting theirs?
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqEBR9shy6A]
This being the year of the RAF’s 90th birthday, they really pulled the stops out for the annual Trooping the Colour flypast, which included a Lancaster bomber, an E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft, a Hercules, a C-17, no less than 17 Tornado F3s – and 9 brand spanking new fresh-out-of-the-box Eurofighter Typhoons.
But it seemed like something was missing. I scratched my head. Where were the Harriers?
Duh – silly me. They’re in Afghanistan, obviously, because – unlike the new Typhoons – they’re actually useful in the kinds of war that Britain fights these days. Still, never let practicality get in the way of fun new playthings where defence procurement is concerned, eh readers? As Ann Winterton observed in the House of Commons last year,
I am often reminded of the phrase “boys and toys” when I hear about the huge expenditure on procurement in the UK’s defence budget, not least because I have always believed that it is not what we spend but how we spend it that is more important.
For example, the RAF’s budget is haemorrhaging because of the Eurofighter—that fantastically expensive creation of European integration—and if we enter into tranche 3, which will provide for ground attack, the aircraft will be too fast to be of any use as close air support in counter-insurgency work.
A point neatly proved earlier today, methinks. Happy birthday, RAF.
