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in February it was reported that the RAF was seeking to borrow RC135 Rivet Joint spy planes from the USAF and the Army was trying to get the US Army to lend them some badly needed heavy machine guns.
in February it was reported that the RAF was seeking to borrow RC135 Rivet Joint spy planes from the USAF and the Army was trying to get the US Army to lend them some badly needed heavy machine guns.Last week the Ministry of Defence announced that, as part of its Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme, a £13 billion deal had been signed to provide 14 air-to-air refuelling tankers to the Royal Air Force. The Airbus A330-200s themselves would actually be owned by the Franco-German consortium Air Tanker who would lease the planes to the RAF for a period of 30 years. Rumour has it that, although the RAF will be allowed to paint them in RAF colours and to provide the pilots, the number of missions that can be flown each month, the airmiles clocked up and where the flights take place will have to be sanctioned by the owners in Paris and Berlin.
In today's Observer we learn that the RN is now leasing the warship HMS Clyde from the VT Group, a private company previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. On-board VT quality control staff will apparently monitor the RN use of their ship to make sure that all scratches are noted and that the 30mm guns are only fired at targets approved by the VT managing director.
This out-sourcing approach to asset management is typical of nuLabour's ideological fixation with Private Finance Initiatives and Public-Private Partnerships. The Labour Government has already out-sourced much of the NHS and HM Prisons and 'those in the know' are saying that the Police service is now in line for privatisation, especially since their rebellion over the latest pay deal.
This out-sourcing approach to asset management is typical of nuLabour's ideological fixation with Private Finance Initiatives and Public-Private Partnerships. The Labour Government has already out-sourced much of the NHS and HM Prisons and 'those in the know' are saying that the Police service is now in line for privatisation, especially since their rebellion over the latest pay deal.
During the fag end of the Labour Government the Armed Forces can expect more privatisation 'initiatives'. Military hardware, from machine guns to tanks, will almost certainly be leased from and maintained by commercial organisations. Military family housing has already been sold off and is being rented back from private estate companies; we should not be surprised when we hear that the Brown Brothers have also sold off bases, barracks and other military installations and are renting them back from property companies.
The Observer asks: If the MoD can lease warships and air tankers, what's to stop it leasing tanks, warplanes and even armies from the private sector? The MoD may have recently rejected, in public at least, the use of Polish nationals to make good shortages in Army ranks but the temporary hiring of mercenary troops to fight a specific campaign is only a logical extension of nuLabour thinking - especially when nuLabour animosity to Britain's Armed Forces is taken into account. Clearly such 'corporate warriors' would only expect to work 9 to 5, Monday to Friday with fixed lunch hours and tea breaks of course.
This all has echoes of M & M Enterprises in Joseph Heller's Catch-22 when Milo Minderbinder contracts the USAF to bomb it's own airfield in some roundabout profit-making deal with the Germans in WW2.
Link> The Observer: Guns for hire? No, but there are warships for rent
Link> AV February 2008: MoD The Borrowers - new Lend Lease deal
Link> MoD: £13 billion deal for new Tanker Aircraft signed
Link> Ministry of Defence says no to Polish immigrants joining Armed Forces
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