Smoke too much,
It's not how much you've been smoking that worries me, it's what you've been smoking.
"How can you blithely state that UK PLC has decided autonomous ops have simply been abandoned and that's that? This is such a massive change in our role in the world!"
I haven't blithely stated it, it's what the Defence Assumptions make clear. Those assumptions describe in detail the level of commitment which our armed forces have to be able to sustain. At one time it included the ability to sustain two simultaneous 32-aircraft FJ deployments, for example. Those are not in some way 'my assumptions' - they are the backbone of the policy mutually decided between the Ministry of Defence, the Government and the Forces chiefs. Moreover, there are many who would like to see us retreat further from 'delusions of imperial grandeur' and to be even more modest in the overseas operations which we attempt, because this is already a cause of considerable over-stretch. There has been a change in our role in the world, but it's one that has already taken place, and is not one being forced upon us by the premature retirement of the SHar.
"The money is there, its just that our govt has made a decision not to fund any necessary mods/upgrade." The money is plainly not there. The money is not sufficient to fund everything, which is why options are being run, and why cuts are being made. This isn't some fiendish plot against the RN, it's a sensible cost-saving measure.