
UK’s Chinook HC Mk3 special forces helicopters set to become usable - rbanffy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/29/chinook_mk3s_receive_mk5_update_16_yrs_late/
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LeifCarrotson
I've experienced this personally, as a controls engineer for a
test/manufacturing equipment shop. Usually, customers accept our ready-to-go
controls. But a half dozen times in the last few years, they say "don't bother
pulling wiring or writing software, we'll do that". 5 out of those 6 machines
are still non-operational.

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cjrp
Is it because the customers think they'll save money making the software
themselves?

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arethuza
ARRSE sums it up nicely:

[https://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/British_Military_Procurement_Su...](https://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/British_Military_Procurement_Successes)

[Probably not wise to click around much on that site as a lot of content is
NSFW]

 _Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs_ is also quite good:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions,_Donkeys_and_Dinosaurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions,_Donkeys_and_Dinosaurs)

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davidf18
The Israelis have their own modified version of the F-15, the F-15I. Some of
the mods are done at the factory and some done in Israel:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15E_Strike...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15E_Strike_Eagle#F-15I)

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robk
I think it's just cultural. British Airways has the same reputation for
tinkering with oem stuff and generally making it worse or at least harder to
maintain requiring specialist in house engineering.

