RAF Typhoons confirmed gunless?

On Fri, 14 May 2004 14:36:09 +0000 (UTC), Alex Walton wrote:
On Mon, 10 May 2004 22:46:52 +0100, ess (phil
hunt) wrote:

snip
3. FCLV (Future Command and Liaison Vehicle), cost: GBP 200 m. This
is a light truck, it looks like an over-sized land rover (there's a
picture at http://www.zen19725.zen.co.uk/weblog/art_222.html).
Britain is buying 400 of themv at over GBP 400,000 each, or about
20 times the cost of the land rovers they'll be replacing. I dare
say it's a good vehicle, but is it really worth 20 times more than
a land rover? I don't think so.

(Apologies for the late response, and a bit off topic but...)

FCLV replaces the Ferret scout car which, as it has been out of
service for over a decade, has seen it's roles temporarily filled by a
variety of vehicles including Land Rovers, CVR(T) and Saxon. FCLV is
in no way a replacement for the Land Rover - I wish it was as the MoD
would be buying thousands of them.

Also, the contract for 401 vehicles is worth GBP125m and includes some
support costs, putting each FCLV at less than GBP 315,000.

According to an MoD press release[1], the value of the contract was
"Over #200 million". I assume "#" means pounds.

However, the press release predate the reduction in the contract to
4012 vehicles -- did the unit cost go down during negotiations for
this reduction?

[1] http://www.mod.uk/dpa/way_ahead_for_mrav_and_fclv.htm

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