Angus Batey has been contributing to various titles within the Aviation Week Network since 2009. He has reported from military bases, industrial facilities, trade shows and conferences, on topics ranging from defense and space to business aviation, advanced air mobility and cybersecurity.
The U.K. Defense Ministry has its share of procurement disasters. The Astute-class submarines are £1 billion ($1.63 billion) over budget; Mk3 Chinook helicopters were mothballed for nine years before being expensively fielded with Mk2 cockpits (see p. 10); and the MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft, a variant of a 60-year-old model, will cost a quarter of the price of a space shuttle and enter service almost a decade late.
It is among the U.S. Air Force’s most finite resources, but the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is still growing in capabilities, and it’s an aircraft America is happy to allow an ally to use. A long-standing exchange program that has seen USAF personnel trade places with those from the Royal Air Force was extended to the B-2 in 2004.
One potentially decisive battle of the Afghan counterinsurgency will take place early next year—not in country, but in a courtroom in Washington. That, at least, is the view of attorney David Rivkin, who believes that a pending decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia could have devastating repercussions for coalition forces in Afghanistan.
