Nimrod scrapping?

[eastern]

Is it right what I have just read in the papers that the "new" Nimrod MRA4 is going to be scrapped starting tomorrow? If it is then thats 4,000,000,000 pounds wasted! Has this whole country gone stark starring mad. The bods at the MOD seem to be destroying everything that the government have cancelled just so that they can't be restarted. I know the MOD haemorrage money but this makes what the banks have done look paltry, and at least the banks have to pay it back whereas the MOD just walk away.

[VHG]

I am afraid our Government (along with most countries governments) are experts at wasting money.

Many many huge government computer projects have taken place in this country in the last couple of decades, many costing millions and millions.

And many of them have vastly over run their costs, and many have been canceled before completion, or not worked after years of development.

[jake-the-peg]

The project is 8 years late massively over budget and they've only managed to build 2 planes.

Do you just want to continue throwing money at it and hope it all suddenly comes out smelling of roses?

Sounds to me like a case of not throwing good money after bad

[rojash]

The waste comes not from cancelling the project, but from signing up to it in the first place.
As VHG says, squillions have been wasted on IT projects which most IT people knew from the start would not work. The problem is almost always due to over-ambition and over-specification. Unfortunately it's not in the interests of consultants and contractors to point out the flaws in government specs., as, instead of re-specifying a project to be attainable, the government will simply drop that contractor/consultant and replace them with another, who's willing to take the money and run.

[youngmafbog]

And the fact most people in IT in the civil service dont have a clue