Royal Navy Lynxes retired after 41 years service

[ananda]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-39234648

[Ganter]

A "saddish" day - can't really compare with the Harriers going West a few years ago.

The cat has been a faithful pet of the RN for so long - forty yers or so. The Wild Cat looks impressive as an upgrade and should provide a similarly excellent service for many years to come. I look forward to seeing the first one come in nicely on to the deck of either HMS QE or HMS PoW as well as the Merlins of course (Oh, and the F35B's, Meh!)

[PhantomTweak]

The Lynx's are great birds. Sorry to see them go.

(Oh, and the F35B's, Meh!)

I am with you 100% on that sentiment.
I worked for Lockheed for several years, and, speaking from an admittedly limited view, I noticed they tend to buy contracts. Promise a General a nice house and well paying job after he get's out, under-bid other companies dramatically, whatever. Then, when they have the contract they want, well, there are huge delays, major cost over-runs, all that good stuff. Makes LOTS of money for Lockheed. Too bad the product never gets delivered, or if it does, it doesn't work as advertized, if at all.
IN MY OPINION, just a money making scam they have. Seems to work rather well for them too, sadly. In the mean time, the guys that NEED the product, well, too bad for them. I know for a fact they did it with the Aerostat program. They underbid by a huge amount, then all of a sudden there were costs they hadn't mentioned, or things weren't quite as they had made them seem. Came in, ruined the balloon by putting a silly little generator on it, changed the tether out for a weak piece of trash, you name it. It went from an outstanding, very reliable and long lasting system to...well, what it is today.
They don't treat employees very well, either, at least in the Aerostats.
Sour grapes? May well be. I'll shut up now... </rant>
Pat☺

[wombat666]

Re Lockheed.

Go back some 40-50 years and check out the huge scandal when Lockheed attempted a shifty deal with the Japanese Government.
Same old same old.