How long can Britain's combat aircraft industry fly high for?

The silhouette of one of the British Army’s Apache attack helicopters in the skies over Afghanistan is a reassuring sight for coalition forces on the battlefield. Its ungainly shape projects a menacing power that foes are unlikely to stand up to – if they haven’t already fled at the sound of its approaching rotors.

But this symbol of British military power won’t be quite so British in the future. It’s almost certain that a forthcoming order for 50 updated Apaches will go to Boeing, the latest in a spate of major defence deals to go to the US. Three weeks ago, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced he would soon sign the contract for the first of P-8 Poseidon, part of a nine-aircraft deal worth £2bn.

Even the current Apache isn’t as British as the layman might think – it’s a Boeing design that Britain modified. The first eight were built in the US, with the remainder assembled from Boeing-supplied kits by Westland Helicopters in Yeovil, where they were given better engines from Rolls-Royce, more advanced avionics and other upgrades.

The work, which made the UK helicopters far more capable than their American contemporaries, maintained British engineering expertise, but the modifications more than doubled the cost, adding £24m to each of the £20m basic helicopters.

Since the prospect of modernising the fleet of Apaches was first mooted, Westland – which is now owned by Leonardo, the recently renamed Finmeccanica – argued for a similar arrangement, in a deal that would guarantee skills and jobs in the UK. However, Boeing countered that adding new Apaches for the UK on to a much larger order from the US military would mean the price would be slashed.

"How long can Britain's combat aircraft industry fly high for?"

How for can long prepositional participles bedangled be?

Someone call please the Grammbulance! Arr!

They are thinking about the problem all wrong. The British have been amazingly innovative. Many of the specialties of American companies originated from a gift of technology such as jet engines and radar that was given to the US in exchange for producing weapons in mass that Britain needed for World War II. A head start, economies of scale and the financial situation in Britain has made American made products unassailable.

Currently, the world’s largest producer of drone aircraft is Israel. But drones are a market in its infancy. The British could take their existing expertise and create an entirely new market that might obsolete American technology. The next big thing is probably swarm machinery. Each machine, or drone, would have limited capabilities, like ants. But in dozens or hundreds they could deny entire countries to manned aircraft, glide bombs and flying smart weapons.

The problem is one of investment. And, governments are the worst investors imaginable. The US government funded a program to develop the first airplane. Nine days and thousands of dollars after the government announced manned flight was impossible, the Wright brothers flew their fist plane.

Looks like the Telegraph is hiring semi-literates to write headlines these days. Sloppy editing on the cutlines, as well: “The Nimrod - which was scrapped - was the one of the last indigenous British combat aircraft projectsan”

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