The huge sum would pay a year’s salaries for 13,409 nurses or 12,099 classroom teachers. A Land Equipment Fleet Optimisation Programme means old Mastiff, Ridgeback and Wolfhound carriers – almost £500,000 new – will go. The next highest write-off was cutting back the RAF’s fleet of Sentry spy-in-the-sky surveillance aircraft – at a cost of £147million. In 2016 the six-strong Lincolnshire-based fleet – which was used against ISIS in Syria and Iraq – was grounded by an electrical fault. A power outage ruined medicines worth £1.9million, sonar equipment went missing, losing £791,000, and a damaged missile pod cost £640,000.

Source: Daily Mirror November 14, 2020 19:57 UTC