ICBM,
I think we are in agreement. It is the professionalism that has saved the day through practice and experience. To lose that skill for 10 years affects not only the aircrew but the ships crew as well. Yes I admit I had referred to Dave being STOVL instead of the CV we have now changed the order to, but the point remains the same if you are blue water or out of range of a decent div. Oh and by the way witnessing is not the same as doing.
How much do you really know about our RAF/RN guys flying F18 and AV8B for the US on exchange? We have to pay for that privilege as it's not really an exchange (not many USN pilots doing the same over here). When we originally looked at the costings for this back in 2005 the US wanted to charge us $2mil per pilot per year. A bargain in my opinion but then again i'm not a beancounter REMF. Work out how much it costs for just 20 pilots for 10 years and that's at the 2005 price, not the price we are paying now. Do you really think the UK is going to pay for pilots to keep current in the US for ten years??? Don't be so naive.
ABTE