Mainstay: But the MoD could meet cuts targets by grounding RAF Tornado aircraft
Posted on 07/30/2010 6:00:22 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
RAF Tornado fleet 'faces axe' in bid to save £7.5bn
By Katherine Faulkner
Last updated at 6:46 AM on 30th July 2010
The RAF’s fleet of Tornado jets is expected to be grounded as a result of savage budget cuts imposed on the Ministry of Defence.
Scrapping the 120-strong fleet, which has been a mainstay of the RAF for more than 30 years, would yield cuts of more than £7.5 billion for the MoD, which has been ordered by the treasury to slash its spending by up to 20 per cent.
Grounding the Tornado would save billions more than withdrawing the Harrier jet, which is used by the RAF and Royal Navy, an assessment by the Ministry of Defence revealed.
Scrapping the Harrier Joint Strike Wing, which includes both RAF and Fleet Air Arm squadrons, would yeild only slightly more than £1 billion, according thot the internal document, which was leaked to the Times newspaper.
Both scenarios are thought to involve the closing of some military bases.
The proposed grounding of the Tornado jets would have a dramatic impact on the armed forces.
Losing the planes would halve Britain’s fast jet fleet - raising questions over the long-term viability of the RAF.
More...MoD must pay £20billion Trident renewal bill, Osborne tells Fox
But sources close to Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, insisted that amalgamating the RAF with any other service would be ‘a bridge too far for any government.’
The internal document was drawn up as part of the continuing Strategic Defence Spending Review.
The Treasury is demanding the MoD find overall cost savings of between 10 and 20 per cent. It was agreed by
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Mainstay: But the MoD could meet cuts targets by grounding RAF Tornado aircraft
If they don’t have the money, they don’t have the money. But they better be cutting everything else first. If this is what it comes to, then this is what they gotta do. We may be in the same situation here in america before long. The smart thing would be to make necessary cuts BEFORE things are so bad you gotta gut your military. I’m not confident america is smart enough to do that.
“Have a Go Argie”. The UK is going to spend at least £10bn for hosting the 2012 Olympics at the cost of destroying its armed forces. Way to go UK!! If you really want to save money reopen Spitfire production.
See my post. The problem is the UK spends billions on utter BS.
Oh, great.
That pretty much eliminates the UK’s capacity for strike missions and air defense (they have an air defense version of the Tornado). All they’ll have left are Harriers and few “Eurofighters.”
Well, they weren’t using ‘em anyways.
If you really want to save money reopen Spitfire production.
Are you kidding? That was a horrible car!...............
Blessed by Lucas, the Prince of Darkness, wasn’t it?
Cursed is more like it..............
Wow, judging by the fit and finish that car looks like a full frame up restoration back to original factory specs...
Most likely. There is one undergoing that process right now about 30 feet from where I sit. The owner of this company is a restorer..........
My guess is the Tornado is an expensive airplane to maintain, and the decision to scrap them is analogous to the U.S. Navy's decision to scrap the F-14, even given the young F-14Ds then in the fleet.
The Tornado IDS was and is a phenomenal weapon system. In RAF service it has been flown by the most courageous pilots and navigators in military aviation. The Tornado IDS was tasked with NATO's riskiest mission: Runway denial - that is the direct attack on enemy air bases to prevent aircraft from taking off, or landing and rearming if they are not on base. Runway denial required the pilots to fly at very low altitude directly over the enemy airfield.
The reality is now runway denial can be done more effectively from higher altitude using JDAMs, rather than low altitude submunitions.
Unfortunately, like the F-111 and F-14, the Tornado is likely to be replaced by a less-capable platform due purely to cost reasons. But at the same time, technology has advanced to a point where a less capable platform can employ an advanced weapon like the JDAM as effectively as the earlier generation Cadillac platform.
Selling aircraft carriers, grounding fighter planes, and who knows what else is next just to be able to pay people who are on the dole (corporate as well as individual).
Where the UK so follows the US. We should start seeing this to our military in the next year or so. Heck, we’ll probably start buying our fighter planes from the Russians or Chinese at the rate our economy is going.
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