However, in view of its present high price, rhenium (used in highly fuel-efficient aircraft engines) is now recovered from scrap bimetallic catalysts used in the oil refining industry.

FORBES: Recycling Scrap Rare Metals Vital to Future Technologies

The review, announced by David Cameron in October, included measures to cut military personnel by 17, 000, scrap Nimrod spy planes and retire the HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier leaving Britain without a carrier strike capability until the end of the decade.

BBC: Defence review a 'cost-cutting exercise'

With one exception: since the review's publication there has been simmering rage over a plan to scrap 80 Harrier jump-jets and Ark Royal, an aircraft-carrier, and to keep the RAF's Tornado fleet.

ECONOMIST: Why scrapping the Harrier aircraft looks like a mistake

This is like the U.S. navy ordering aircraft carriers only to find this type of craft is newly obsolete and headed for the scrap yard.

FORBES: Open Season On Icons, From Apple And Google To Charlie Sheen

Rather than turn the planes into scrap metal and lose a substantial amount of money, Saab has remodelled them into aircraft aimed at combating a range of worldwide threats.

BBC: Saab's 'special mission' aircraft searches for customers