EXCLUSIVE – The Ministry of Defence has confirmed to The UK Defence Journal the cancellation of the Shadow Mk2 upgrade programme after it failed to deliver the performance required by the Armed Forces and faced escalating costs and delays.
We reached out after a source in industry made us aware of the plans. A Ministry spokesperson told the UK Defence Journal that the programme “has been cancelled as it failed to deliver the capability that our Armed Forces need. It was also facing unacceptable cost escalations and delays.”
Sources indicated that the decision was taken ahead of the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan due to what were described as acute programme challenges.
The Shadow Mk2 project was intended to upgrade the RAF’s fleet of Beechcraft-based surveillance aircraft with upgraded mission systems, defensive technology, and enhanced range. Instead, attention will now turn to sustaining the current Mk1 fleet, which remains in operational service with 14 Squadron at RAF Waddington.
The Ministry said the decision would allow funding to be redirected to other capabilities, telling me: “This will allow us to focus on investing in other defence priorities and Shadow Mk1, which remains important for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work.”
“We won’t shy away from making difficult decisions that arise in the best interests of our Armed Forces and the taxpayer.”
It is understood that maintaining the Mk1 aircraft ensures continuity in intelligence and reconnaissance missions while allowing the RAF to plan for future airborne surveillance solutions under the Defence Investment Plan. The Shadow platform has been a key asset in UK operations abroad, providing near-real-time battlefield intelligence and situational awareness.
The Ministry also underlined its continuing commitment to the defence industry in Wales, where Shadow production and maintenance have contributed to hundreds of skilled jobs. “Wales, and its innovative defence sector, plays an important role in the UK’s defence industrial landscape,” the spokesperson said. “We’re working closely with the Welsh Government on the Defence Growth Deals to ensure it delivers its full potential long into the future.”
Government data show Wales received £1.1 billion in defence spending last year, supporting nearly 4,000 jobs across shipbuilding, aerospace and advanced manufacturing. While the Shadow Mk2’s cancellation marks a setback for local industry, the Ministry insists that defence investment in Wales remains a priority within its wider strategy to sustain sovereign capability and modernise the UK’s intelligence and surveillance fleet.
Remember everyone, this goverment claims we are on a ‘War footing’.
ISR is one of the ways we can meaningfully contribute to a potential conflict in Europe, even more so considering our lack of fast frontline jets …
But if it wasn’t delivering the expected capability then is this an issue that the contractors were not up to the task? Or that we couldnt afford it and cut costs? We keep doing projects it seems our defence industry has no clue how to deliver; ajax, chally3, bowman, morpheus, nimrod.
Other than ships/fighter jets/missiles (spear, meteor, starstreak/llm) we seem to have lost all credibility and capability. Certainly in the armoured space. Even with missiles we dont make ASTER is our main armament for the ships…
A good chunk of this is of course down the budgets and MoD mismanagement over the last 25 years or so, never actually commiting to something and just placing actual orders, always projects to try this and that, change requirements, run competitions and evaluations. 100 of something that does the job is better than 0 of nothing.
BeaconL, what do you see the problems are with the Chally 3 project?
The UK defence industry did not have the capability to produce the gun, and BAE had to sell the majority of its telford operation (51%) to rheinmetall (forming RBSL) to get it over the line.
That a conversion of chally 2 to 3, with a fixed grand total of 148 units, is taking as long as it is, and costing as much as it is. This project was actually the ‘capability sustainment programme’ CSP which was quietly cancelled and later replaced with the ‘Life Extension Programme’ (LEP) which was eventually turned into Challenger 3 which is actually just Challenger 2B.
Defence Select Committee critisized the hell out of LEP, budgets totally blown with nothing to show for it.
We might end up with a good product in the end, but its already on the verge of obsolete and coming up to par with the latest generation of Abrams or Leopard, maybe a bit better, while they’re all busy looking at the next generation [130mm gun, anti-drone capabilites etc]
Interesting article on Defence Eye.
“initial approval has been given for 14 extra Challenger 2 hulls to be put through the Heavy Armour Automotive Improvement Programme (HAAIP)”
Trying to sell the CR3 upgrade to Oman?
Or the UK could be buying back the hulls to increase its own stock of tanks and attrition reserves?
It would be good to see the CR3 program increased even to equip attrition reserves or a reserve regiment or even both!
Could be; if the Omanis decide for a new tank then their current CR2 would be up for sale. My betting is that the govt have decided to create another tank regiment of 44 tanks – apparently the Ukrainians have put 60 of our so called ‘unservicable’ AS90s to good use. This has focussed minds. Where there’s a will there’s a way. If you can find 14 hulks worth regenerating, you can find 44. Govt also keen to support UK jobs and exports. So I don’t think its either -or.
Yes, it’s just that very expensive slow moving turbo prop is probably not the best way to do that in face of a modern surface to air missile threat or the ability of a near pier adversary to take out air bases hundreds of miles away.
Is it better than doing nothing, and is the only real alternative doing nothing? If so, whether it’s probably not the best way is irrelevant.
MQ-9 offers way more for way less
War footing – the clowns in charge meant backwards!!
Do you want money to be wasted or not? Did you even read the article?
The comment was in relation to the term ‘war footing’ as mentioned in a comment above. How many new airframes or Squadrons have been ordered for the RAF since UK Prime Ministers Bojo and Starmer declared UK was on a war footing? Answer – 0.
I haven’t forgotten your stated belief a while ago that 7 Sqns of FGR4s is sufficient size for DCA and CAS in any conflict against RU.
And as part of a NATO fast jet force, with the USAF , that is sufficient against Russia and its Air Force that has proven how very incapable they have been over Ukraine. No air superiority, no precision strike, no 5th gen capability, no ISTAR or situational awareness that could seriously challenge NATO forces.
Under trump the US support isn’t guaranteed whilst NATO is untried and untested. As the first Nation’s losses hit reality it may be every nation for themselves! NATO on paper is unbeatable I agree but I wouldn’t put all my eggs in that basket. We need another at least another 72 FGR4s to create self sufficient mass
That would be very nice. But we both know it won’t happen. That’s why we exercise with allies generating 50,60 aircraft packages. We are getting 26 more F35’s, and £2.35bn being spent on upgrading Typhoon. And lots of drone projects Beyond that is anyone’s guess. We will see if the defence equipment plan has any surprises.
Looks on paper to be a good decision, which may have saved millions of wasted money. More such actions might avoid mistakes like Warrior Upgrade and Nimrod, which resulted in horrendous expenditure for nothing. The new inner workings inside the MOD just might signal the end of the alleged get-rich-quick defence projects of the past?
The upgrade has already been carried out on USAF and US armyversions. There is no risk, its all about not spending money. We will end up with obsolete platforms just like AMAC and Sential. Don’t be surprised to see this platform axed in the near future.
Except the the USAF and US Army don’t operate the Shadow R1 Aircraft…
Yes they do they are known as MC-12W Liberty aircraft.
Wrong, completely different sensor suite.
Just happens to also use Beechcraft Super King, probably because it’s one of the few pressurised prop types available.
Er no, it isn’t actually.
🤡
The US does not use shadow R1 or Mk2.
But they do use Beechcraft King Airs, on which our Shadow are based on, including for Special Operations roles probably not dissimilar to this. I recall when the first 4 King Air were delivered to the UK, I read they were located at RAF Syerston, of all places.
Yep but completely different systems essentially the R1s and the now extinct MK2 are British systems on a US airframe.. very different from anything the US has.
It’s a fecking American Aircraft!
Yes but not the systems that’s all UK kit and it’s the systems which are the problem.. the beachcroft airframe is used for a ton of different purposes… only the UK uses the R1 and mk2
System integration issues are probably the most common reason for cost and schedule blowouts on complex defence projects in the modern era and are difficult to plan for or cost accurately. ISR platforms are arguably one of the most complex because typically there are multiple systems from different suppliers sometimes with conflicting requirements (power supply, cooling, data fusion, system buses etc.).
The RAAF Peregrine ISR platform has suffered similar system integration delays with L3 Harris pushing the schedule to the right. At least the first airframe is now flying in the US and delivery of the first of 4 on order now likely in early 2026. Based on zero hour airframe Gulfstream G550 business jets able to operate at altitudes over 50,000 feet and 12,500 km range its likely to be more survivable than a Beechcraft turboprop equivalent.
ISR platforms also require significant investment to keep them operationally relevant. Fortunately the RAAF does seem to be committed to spiral upgrades and adequately funding them. In March 2025 $569M contract was let for upgrades to the Wedgetail fleet while the P8 fleet has already begun its spiral upgrade program (Increment 3 Block 2) in the US with the first two airframes in Jacksonville Florida. The RAAF has also committed funding to keep the Super Hornet and Growler fleets in lock step with the USN to maximise interoperability.
The next few years should see the RAAF develop a solid and capable ISR fleet with final deliveries of Triton UAV (4), Peregrine (4), P8 (14) and Wedgetail (6).
They have been talking about this MK2 upgrade since 2017.
The out of service date did this aircraft is 2030 so if it’s taking that long to deliver it’s likely out of date already.
This was a UOR for Afghanistan and it sounds like it was a valuable asset but we all know it wouldn’t last 10 minutes in contested airspace.
I think you’re clutching at straws Maurice. There is only one thing on this governments mind and that is to talk big, deliver nothing and get away with it.
I fear you are right. Rachel has trashed the economy & there is no extra money for defence.
Economy has been trashed passed couple of decades. Going to take ages to fix this country.
As Hemingway said. You go bankrupt, slowly at first, then suddenly.
It would fix itself really rather quickly if sensible policies and direction of policy shift were implemented.
The most important thing is to put the brakes on this borrowing. That means getting to grips with our idiotic addiction to welfare spending and dealing with the massive grey economy of people claiming benefits and working on the side. Never mind the Turkish barber / carwash / money laundering economy.
That in itself would reduce the need for borrowing as the interest on the gilts would fall. The more expensive ones could be bought back on the open markets as they were traded and replaced with cheaper ones. Bear in mind that gilts are constantly expiring and having to be refinanced so a move in the needle of even 1% is a big deal.
😂
As always my friend. It never ceases to amaze me how bad we can make things whilst supposedly delivering the defence of our country.
So you are happy if they waste money on a project that isn’t going to deliver? Then you will moan about money being wasted and not put towards other projects
No. I’m unhappy about the fact that we have yet cutback in capabilty almost certainly without replacement, but I dare say you’ll support whatever is said as usual.
The Bulldust these spokesman come out with.
This government has no intention whatsoever of spending a penny more than it has to on defence.
That’s clearly incorrect, as the first thing they did was increase expediture.
The issue is the vague statement doesn’t give us much to go on and history of cuts make us job to conclusions. My first reaction was yet more stealth cuts, but it is possible that the upgrade was a waste of money and the capability is better coming from somewhere else. Time will tell, as that something else has to be purchased.
The capability for the upgrades to the fleet is already there, Raytheon has already upgraded sensor suites for the US. There was no risk on the UK tax payer taking on a runaway and expensive research development.
The Mk2 upgrade was announced three years ago with the intention of bringing the fleet up to 8 frames, the money saved from scrapping Sentinel was supposed to foxy for this.
To be accurate they made an announcement that we would reach 2.5 per cent of the then GDP, not counting for inflation by 27/28. The increase was ready to be implemented by the outgoing Tory government who were equally useless. So where is the actual money from labour.
This isn’t true. Look at the actual budget, it jumped up for this accounting year. The conservatives talked a good game but the figure didn’t rise by anything signficiant. There is a plan for further increase but agree can’t consider that until it happened.
““We won’t shy away from making difficult decisions that arise in the best interests of our Armed Forces and the taxpayer.”
What a peach…there was a list of cancelled programs and written off costs totalling around 1.6 billion released the other day, so I hope we did not spend too much money which is now wasted. Best interests of the taxpayer my ****.
“Best interests of the Armed Forces”… you’re removing their assets BY THE WEEK and not replacing them so leave that out as well.
Sentinel was cut on the excuse that it was “obsolete” and that was not updated in its service, so I hope the same fate ( and excuse ) does not fall on these assets further down the line.
Shadow. One of our key ISTAR capabilities which I understand also took on part / some of the role of the AAC Defender/Islanders of 5 AAC which were first passed onto the RAF, then quietly done away with.
They may also carry out some of the taskings of the old RAF Northolt Station Flights 3 Islanders, who’s role was also passed to 3 civilian registered aircraft, Piper Navajo PA31s G-SCIR / G-SCTR / G-SCMR. These, and Shadows, can be seen circling over towns and cities of Britain and involved in COMINT regards the enemy within who live below, data of which is passed to the Security Service and to GCHQ.
Sadly 3 R1s were handed over to Raytheon UK for conversion and never given back.., they should have been back in service as MK2s in 2024… sounds like Raytheon took Humpty Dumpty apart and could not put him back again.. the worry is that only leaves 3 R1s left unless the three can be put back together as R1s.
There were meant to be 8, 2 more announced years back. So maybe that was all ******* as well.
It angers me.
But if a project can’t deliver. Why keep pouring more money into it that can be spent on other things. The budget isn’t a bottomless pit. They have to be ruthless
The issue is we all assume the worst after so many bodged cuts over the year. The press statement being rather vague doesn’t help with that.
Morning mate.
I’d rather have my 6 then 8 R1s back than a fleet halved because Raytheon have buggered them, that’s my concern.
My earlier rant disected the standard MoD statement which is always full of holes when taking a wider view of the reality of what is going on.
I this as our ISTAR fleet, a supposed area of high priority, 3 frames down and possibly cut in the near future on some feable excuse.
Could say that about pretty much every big ticket asset to be honest Robert.
Two carriers with not enough F35’s to embark a full (as designed for) load.
Spaffing money on keeping T23’s running long enough to be replaced by fewer T26’s.
HMS Daring being OOS for nearly a whole decade and the others all needing urgent (glacial) remedial works just so they can do their job as designed so many years ago.
Splashing the Tax payers money on ships no longer deemed nessessary and then sold on for way less than the costs.
Scrapping huge swaves of equipment so that extotionate amounts can be spent on new stuff.
This waste goes on and on with ever more cuts.
You just couldn’t run a business like it thats for sure.
There where 6 R1s. 5 are still with the Sqn. A single R1 was in the process to be upgraded to MK2. There are 2 other B300CER being modified straight to MK2 standard. That’s the 8 accounted for. It isn’t likely that the 3 being modified can be turned into R1s as all the heavy structural mods are complete on all 3. The likely range enhancement for the R1 fleet could be fitment of the 5 bladed prop as the aircraft already have extended range tanks and more powerful engines.
You wait, They’ll be replaced by Drones soon !
Raytheon?
Ha, well you never know !
To be fair in a modern contested skies conflict, drones doing this role Vs a slow moving turbo prop plane with humans in, is a far better idea, assuming the capability adds up and the cost isn’t stupid.
But Shadow doesn’t do that in modern contested conflicts.
Our military does not just do that. They play a role over the skies of the UK, they deploy to the Middle East, they might deploy someplace else.
They an a valuable asset, you might as well say all transport aircraft must go too, I know you’re not, but it’s the same.
Assets have their place, and I’d rather have an asset than no asset at all and the latest excuse from HMG
Hi M8, Just catching up on UKDJ after a week with Grandson in North Yorkshire, only defence related thing was dodging squadies buying Snacks in Catterick Tesco and an A400M very low flying in Wharfedale.
I’m just wondering about the timing of this announcement and the actual capabilities of these aircraft, are they actually worth investing in ? They are OSD in 5 years, small, difficult and expensive to upgrade and let’s face it short ranged (non persistent) and no use in a hostile environment. Which is probably why they have spent most of the last 2 years trying to eavesdrop on Hamas in Gaza.
They must cost an arm and a leg to operate / maintain so I’m not sure that further development is a worthwhile investment given their limitations !
What I am wondering is what if the RAF wants to go down another route and is laying down the groundwork to do so !
When MOD usually do this sort of thing they do their usual financial shell trick, take the kit out of service immediately and “Gap” the entire capability, but not this time it’s more nuanced.
They aren’t cancelling or scrapping the existing capability in fact they are continuing to support it but halting further future development spending whilst keeping the existing capability in service.
If you take a step back from it and think about what the task of manned ISR in a non hostile environment requires they could just be thinking ahead and going down another route.
Now I’m going to speculate and it’s a big what if (where is JoeFSB when you want him ?).
Just 2 weeks ago HAV announced that a military contractor had reserved 3 production Airlander 10s to be delivered in 2027 for military demonstration use (25/10 in UKDJ). That in itself is a bit odd as no contractor spends money on 3 Airframes without a very good idea of a profit at the end of it. But what has made me really curious isn’t the actual announcement itself but what didn’t happen 🤔.
South Yorkshire is now back to being pretty well a 100% Labour Stronghold, but not one single Politician has banged the mandatory good news story of “U.K secures export order to XYZ”. Which given that our Defence Sec is practically camped out in Sheffield each week and loves making good news (jobs) announcements is to put it mildly “bloody odd”.
It suggests to me that it may well be a U.K. based contractor and MOD may be the potential customer. It actually makes a lot of sense if a Airlander was going to replace the Shadow R1 because that’s what it was designed to do. When it comes to persistent, very cost effective ISR or MPA not a lot can match it, the original Airlander Project was paid for by the US Army for their LEMV requirement. It can carry 10 tons of kit at altitude and stay airborne for days on end, it’s everything Shadow isn’t and unlike a drone it’s relatively cheap to buy, update and operate.
Food for positive thought 🤔
Hi mate.
Very positive thought.
As long as GCHQ, MI5 and the CT Police have a military Airborne Comint asset that can deploy over our skies in the numbers needed to listen in on the enemies we’ve allowed to come and live here I’m happy
An Airship won’t be quite as good for COIN or permissive environments elsewhere though, at short notice, in support of the DSF, which was another Defender role which might have passed onto Shadow.
651 AAC was allocated to JSFAW back in the day.
I did think the air lander was for the MOD its smells of an embargoed news release.. I suspect it’s one of the big ticket items in the new investment plan..
Because of what we have seen I suspect the following
1) airlander as the future MPA, AEW and ISTAR platform
2) a significant increase in challenger 3 orders ( the adding 60 challenger 2s to official establishment only makes sense if your increasing challenger 3 numbers.. otherwise you just look like your cutting more.. the present numbers cannot support 3 regiments even type 44 regimens).
3) MRSS.. my prediction is we see a split.. 2-3 large amphibious vessels of 20-40,000 tons build in Belfast and direct replacement for the Albion’s a smaller large littoral raiding/ autonomous mothership frigate, 3-4 in number that collapses some of the MRSS programme and the T32 programme together
4) a future programme for up to 20 optionally crewed vessels supporting ASW and AAW as well as acting as peacetime patrol and presence vessels.. with the ability to carry ligh autonomous capabilities)
5) IFV future option
6) Patria APC numbers ( I’m betting 1000)
7) I don’t know if we will actually get a plan on what the T83 will be
8) SSN future numbers
9) increased F35A buy
10) a vague plan to go mainly autonomous carrier airwing in place of a another F35b buy
11) a purchase plan for large undersea autonomous vessels
12) lots and lots of long range missiles to plaster Russia with if it does nasty things to the UK… I honestly think this will be the big piece.. the ability to make Russia suffer if Russia makes us suffer would seem to be a core UK defence requirement.
13) 155mm artillery order
14) CS CCS to make 6 brigades deployable
15) medium rotor order
16) point class replacements being more a mix of sea lift logistics vessels ( more ablility to land cargo anyway with floats etc)
Wow! That is some shopping list.
I think it covers it 😂😂😂
“….. upgraded mission systems, defensive technology, and enhanced range”. I wonder if just one or two of these upgrades could have been completed, if not all of them? “…. and enhance range” sounds (albeit simplistic to me) like adding fuel tanks to the wings, or something like that. Wouldn’t that be a feasible, relatively inexpensive upgrade to do, if not some of the more complex technological upgrades but, in doing so, we’d have a Mk1 with extended range, at least?
or extended range could also mean improved engines with better fuel efficiency? if so that isn’t cheap
Were ‘improved engines’ what was planned as part of Mk2 scope?
It does sound like something went wrong with this programme as the first three upgraded aircraft were meant to back with the RAF in 2024…
For me a couple of questions
1) will the three beachcrofts that were being upgraded be returned to the RAF in working order as MK1s
2) will the RAF get the 2 new extra aircraft as planned but to the Mk1 standard..
If Raytheon UK have managed to trash half the shadow R1 fleet that’s a bit of an issue.
The problem is almost certainly the bright ideas club trying to produce something extra special.
There is always someone trying to cover everything in gold leaf…
There are 3 aircraft at RUK facility. 2 basic B300CER, that were going straight to MK2 standard (never R1s) and one R1 being upgraded. That leaves 5 R1s in service. One of the ones at RUK was recently seen at the paint facility onsite. Saw some photos on local spotters site.
Cheers so they started on the 2 new ones first.. that’s some good news at least… or less bad news.. I hope they can put the R1 back together…
Agreed. I’m happy! Just give them back.
What spotters site out of interest? Link to the post would be even better!
Defense investment plan = massive cuts.
And That’s what makes me so Irate, paying all these Taxes and no one is ever held to account.
Now I understand….
Well I wish I could.
What was the question again ?
They talk as if making a “difficult ” decision is a virtue. It’s not for them, they love disposing of assets. Rolling the pitch before the MOD scrap them claiming obsolescence.
Meanwhile, ” increased lethality, more agile, world beating, defending every inch…..” etc.
Absolute bullshit.
Exactly.
How about a statement. “The upgrade failed, we will return ALL aircraft to service, we WILL maintain the fleet and do what upgrades we can, and we WILL after 2030 by a replacement fleet of assets.
Instead, vague rubbish, no commitment, excuses blah blah bloody blah.
I doubt the three aircraft can be returned to service. All the heavy structural mods looked complete on the one seen coming out of paint. A massive underbelly structure bigger than the R1s and they have had the Beech extended nose kit fitted. That replaces the existing nose from the forward pressure bulkhead. This allows the optical sensor to be mounted up front and leaves the underbelly for all the clever stuff. Have a look at Beechcraft special missions catalogue there is an image showing the nose removal. That won’t be cheap or quick to return to standard fit. I think these three will be in an indeterminate state regarding the mods many of which won’t have been approved by CAA/MAA. Unfortunately, I believe the MoD/RAF have requested too many and some unproven systems all at once. RUK weren’t going to say no.
Hi Charlie.
Good info, thank you.
So…..the MoD strikes again and we lose perfectly good kit due to reaching for the stars rather than good enough.
Maybe they’ll be hanger queens like a similar **** up with those 8 Chinooks that rotted at Boscombe for years due to MoDs inability to buy the correct working software for the aircraft.
“we reached out” – enquired.
You word things how you’d like in your articles. I like that phrase.
Couldn’t the RAF’s new Protector do the same job as the Shadow!
correction… ‘Shadow?’
One of my fears that this is what they are planning.
So……
3 Islander at Northolt.
13 plus Defender and Islander.
5 Shadow.
10 Reaper.
Replaced by 16 Protector, also slated to help the P8s, with 3 other private aircraft helping out at home as not deployable.
31 assets reduced to 16
Boom.
The capability can easily be put on a drone. No need for crew services or life support then or an aircraft of such a size to support it all.
EOS and COMINT kit comes in small packages. Some of the kit I helped instal on USN ships was an aerial 30cm diam by 70 cm tall and 3 electronics packs powered by 115v via a transformer to 19v with the packs fitting in 3 briefcase Pele cases.
You don’t want to use a mobile phone within 60 miles of that kit!
We increased the Shadow R1s from 6 to 8 a couple of years ago, so they were obviously deemed to be of value..The plan was to upgrade them all to Mk 2, but the OSD has remained at 2030, which seems odd, if they’re upgrades and.new aircraft, you’d think the OSD would be 2040.
They have been dithering around this Mk 2 upgrade for a few yesrs now, though it does not look particularly complex. Sounds to me as if they want to do it on the cheap and don’t want to pay the real cost.
It is a concern. The RAF’s recon/ISTAR fleet se4ms to be disappearing bit by bit. The 12 Defenders and Islanders were scrapped in the surveillance role, then the capable Sentinels were scrapped, leaving just the Shadow, which is due to be retired by 2030. To replace that lot and the MQ9 Reapers, totalling 36.aircraft, we have just 16 Protectors on order. The RAF wanted 24 but the moneymen said nope, only cash for 16. So basically our ISTAR numbers and probably capability have just been halved in no time at all.
I would have thought that ISTAR would have been top of the wishlist for the new era of warfare but not it seems for the UK, where the plan is to do AEW with 3 aircraft rather than the 5 or 6 needed and likewise sigint with just 3 Rivet Joints.
Where is the ‘three-fold increase in lethality blurb blurb’ in all this? We seem to be going the other way, with yet more cuts in capability and numbers. One would think that with a plan to increase defence spend by 25% to 3% of GDP, we would at least be able to maintain equipment numbers and carry out some incremental upgrades. Instead, we are still robbing Peter to pay Paul all the time.
More like robbing Nick (30 ans) to pay Pip.
Pretty much mate.
Agree, ISTAR should be no 1 priority and MoD have made noises to that effect for years, as have the RAF.
Only bit I’m comfortable with is the 3 Rivets, as we’ve had 3 on the ELINT role for decades past and I know from where else our wider SIGINT take comes from, River is but one part.
These aircraft spend hours and hours flying perfect circles and sliding racetracks over Lincolnshire – maybe they are tracking hare coursing scum-bags – hope so at least that is something useful to do.
That’s probably my fault.
“They’ll never catch me alive” vroom vroom.
“The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe. For the axe was clever, and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.”
Britain to stop spending money because it costs too much. Reeves’s latest budget will be a blank page. Money for the country’s funeral not forthcoming.