Sir Toppam - maybe the Air Defence world needs to streamline its procedures then. I can assure you that LARS units don't have to do what you suggest - at least not in the real (read civil
) world. Some of us actually hold a
licence which has stronger ramifications. (I haven't been bound by QR's or MAFL since 1995 - and it feels damn good!)
Ok - dig at the scopies done - now to answer Mr C's question.
Over the last 10 years the airspace has got busier. I've noticed it, you must have done in your travels. A lot of the limitations (apart from the radar overhead one - that's always been used for as far back as I can remember) are down to the units workload. A certain unit in the midlands (whenever I take traffic from them) will always have the traffic on a limited RIS because it doesn't like working traffic outside CAS. The limitation is one way of reducing liability. There's no technical reason for it - their radar is better than mine - but they limit. The trouble is there are quite a few controllers who limit without actually understanding why they're doing it, but are just following a trend which has been set by others.
If you're working traffic close to the edge of cover and you're limiting the service because of it then why are you working the traffic? At that point you should have given it to someone better placed (one military unit in particular comes to mind - no names).
There are units where there is a genuine reason for limiting - one in particular which has had a c**p radar ever since it was installed in 1989. Radar performance and technology on the whole is such that there is no technical need to limit and if you are doing it consistently then you should be asking yourself - "Should I really be providing the service here?" and if the answer is "no" then tell it to call someone else. It's not an admission of failure - it's a positive decision which ensures best service for the customer.