John Lebrun,
Ever since options for change the RAF's frontline assets have been eviscerated more quickly and widely than anything else. The Army have now lost most of their armour and the Infantry have been cut back significantly with Regimental identities lost and now we hear, they are desperately short on manpower in many of the Battalions.
This is all due to a dismissive attitude by all Governments since the end of the Cold war, it was bad enough before, but the Berlin Wall's destruction in November 1989 was snatched at as an opportunity to save money. If we try to subsume the RAF into the RN, and some elements into the Army, this will just quicken and worsen the process of evisceration of all that's left. Neither of the other services would get the Budget necessary to accommodate the RAF's roles fully. There would also be cost incurred by transferring the RAF into the other services, including the change in ethos, uniforms, training (particularly the finer customs and details of the more senior services), it would be an expensive, long drawn out and unhappy mess. Who would operate the A-400s, E-3Ds, Voyagers? These air elements don't sit well with either Sea or Land operations in fact they are very much irrelevant, just as the air defence of the UK (given how established and complex it is, GCI, QRA etc) is to the RN and Army. The problem is lack of investment in and proper attention to all the services.
FB