It was JM’s post with his London bus picture (here) that got me thinking.
In these times of belt tightening, budget cutting and austerity I certainly wouldn’t be happy with what appears to be a very expensive advertising campaign informing locals of what they already know!
There is apparently also a ‘tube campaign’ and billboard ads…
As one with a lifetime of living with droughts and their effects I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Boadicea's Chariot 
No, no, NO, Soutie! (G’dag, btw.) The whole point of these ads is to avoid litigation later when people start dying of thirst, reduced to drinking Budweiser and wog whisky.
Môre Janus and there’s me thinking that it was merely some high paid advertising exec trying to justify his ‘executive salary,’ year end bonus and share options 😉
Oh it’s money wastage you want?
How about scrapping an entire fleet of relatively new and unique fighter aircraft, then buying new ones from Obammy which soar over budget and suffer from massive delivery delays.
Then decide that you cannot afford both the ships you have commissioned to operate them and mothball one at prohibitive expense and loss of jobs.
Then decide that the F35-B fighters you ordered aren’t as pretty as the F35-Cs and change your order with all the associated penalty clauses.
Only after you have made this crazy decision do you conduct a feasibility study into whether or not you can reverse engineer your ships with catapults and arrestor gear to accomodate the new STOVL (Short Take Off/Vertical Landing)F35-C.
Ignore the findings of the study and press on regardless with the modification programme only to find out after wasting 2Bn that the report was right all along and it just isn’t possible.
Cancel the order for F35-Cs and negotiate a new contract for the original STOVL F35-B which is so heavy and crammed with thrust diverters, even an extra engine just for landing, that it can’t fly very far and would struggle to carry a penknife let alone any decent armament.
and comming soon to incompetent ministers near you…
Realise that the shiny new US toys you have been waiting for cannot do half the stuff the original planes which you dumped on the scrapheap could.
Then and only then, commission a fleet of Harrier GR-11s to replace the useless pieces of dogshit you bought off Obammy, while continuing to pay Lockheed Martin the maintenance fees on airplanes you don’t even have because that was what you promised.
Kinda puts the cost of a few posters and some Solvite into perspective n’es pas?
Oops made a boo boo up there. That should be “non-STOVL F35-C”. Stoopid furball.
In fresh news the defence buffon has stood up in front of all the other scum and explained that “When the facts change, the responsible thing to do is to examine the decision made and be willing to change, however inconvenient that may be,”.
Pity the bodyswerving, responsibility shirking, wriggly, trough snouting barstewards couldn’t take their own advice over the EU innit?
I thought the F-35B was single engined but had an extra lifting fan, unlike the Harrier’s directional nozzles. Anyway, as you imply, the MoD seems to be stuffed full of idiots, from top to bottom! Procurement should be taken away fro ALL ministries and left to the experts, leaving the civil servants to organise the paper clips.
Oops FEEG,
My bad. It isn’t an engine as such, but a muckle gert fan assembly which derives power from a shaft and gearbox tapped from the main engine. either way it takes up a bagload of space and weighs a goodly ammount. An inellegant solution to a non-existant problem.
After all, what is the point of being able to land in a restricted space, if you can’t take off again?
Back when we had the Harriers, one of the major advantages during wargames was that highly mobile teams of ground techies could set up a forward operating base in the smallest of clearings. The jockey would then park his plane in the middle of a forest while it was armed to the teeth, given a good glug of go juice (fuel) then pounced on the enemy as if from nowhere. While he was off playing whiz bangs, the groundcrew could pack up and shift location ready for the next replen.
I wonder if this new spamjet can VIFF like a harrier. Vector In Forward Flight. Basically if the Red Baron was homing in on your six, with a flick of the nozzle control, a harrier could simply shoot upwards decellerating rapidly then drop in behind the now totally bamboozled assailant. Looks to me that as soon as that ridiculous barn door above the vertical thrust fan opened, it would be ripped off.
Morning Ferret
Brilliant and informative rant thanks 🙂
Thanks Soutie,
Just watch this space, before those ships are finished there will be an order for Harriers.
On a lighter note, shortly after the entire fleet was scrapped, we had the “big freeze” (more than 2mm of snow) in London. Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead ground to a total halt. If they had sent 3 Harriers to hover taxi round the airfield the problem would have been resolved in less than an hour. Go figure.
Hi Furry.
I agree with you, what a waste of time and money. They should never have scrapped the Harriers and now they seem to be going back to the original plan.
“Cats and traps” are now too expensive and would delay the whole project by years. What a SNAFU!
Minty MBE,
The problem here is that for some reason which I can’t fathom, the UK bought into an aircraft which wasn’t even built or tested. We put all our eggs into a basket that the septics said should work. The original promise of a futuristic VTOL stealth aircraft was highly attractive. However it has become massively delayed, over budget and has proven to be about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. Tony Bliar offered up his butcheeks to the spams and now we have no choice to keep chucking good money after bad.
Thanks Furry.
This seems to be a familiar story as far as the MoD is concerned. So are they going to have to redesign the carriers, then?
Not if we put Harriers on em Minty MBE.
They could take-off and land on anything. It seems I have somewhat hijacked Soutie’s most excellent blog, I may put aside some time to point out exactly why our gubmint have so foolishly locked us into a complete and utter white elephant on a dedicated post.
Thanks, I’d be interested in a dedicated post, Furry.
Sorry, Soutie, I’m aiding and abetting!
Ferret: I am reasonably certain that these will be the last piloted aircraft designed and built. They only got spec’d in because most of the brass are ex. jockeys. We have hardware on both the 22 and the 35, the total build is dropping almost as fast as the cost rises.
El Dubya,
Why am I not surprised?