99 C HHow dare you inject reason and logic into the debate?!
Thankfully someone with much better knowledge than yourself (along with some examples of how many Hunters we had in 1957) will be along shortly to silence your inane ramblings.
BV
You're a witty chap, BV. But no-one is looking to return to a 1957-sized air force, and nor does anyone think that tossing eight dumb 1,000-lb bombs around is really going to cut it nowadays. But PGMs have been part of the scenery for most of this century, and their use has been routine (unless you're Russian). And a PGM-delivering air force in 2007 had five dedicated AD squadrons to sustainably do QRA and the Falklands, and about a dozen Tornado/Harrier/Jaguar units to do the deployed stuff, whether that was a Telic, or a simultaneous Herrick and Grapple.
That doesn't seem unreasonable, does it?
Arguing for a 12-18 Squadron FJ force is arguing for an air force that is comparable with nations like Turkey, France and Italy - all of whom spend less on defence than we do. For an air force big enough to support a Granby-sized op. For an air force that can sustain more modest commitments without people becoming so disillusioned by the quality of life that they leave in droves.