Airstrip One

Defence Procurement - 8th December 2002, 21.43

For as long as the political memory casts its thoughts back, defence procurement has proved to be one of the finer examples of waste by the British state. There are currently 30 projects that are showing "improvement" according to the NAO.

However, in balancing the equation of capability versus cost, the Armed Forces have cut the number of Nimrod MRA4 military reconnaissance aircraft entering service in 2005 from 21 to 18; and extended the lease on Boeing C-17 transport aircraft due to a further delay in obtaining the Airbus A400M (of which, only nine will be fitted with anti-missile defence systems).

(First spotted on Random Notes)