8 Months from Buy to Fly?

One of the things that is truly depressing about defense procurement is that we see evidence that it does not have to be that bad, case in point, the MC-12W Liberty, a derivative of the mid size turboprop civil transport Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350.

The aircraft is purchases for $7 million, and the mods and equipment cost another $10 million for modifications, for video , sigint, and other surveillance and communications gear, which should prove particularly useful in places like Afghanistan.

The need is real, the requirements were not inflated, and the system is entering service in less than a year.

But this should be the rule, and not the exception, as it is today.