Originally Posted by
melmothtw
With one aircraft likely to be available at any time, I don't think future NATO taskings will be that 'routine' anymore.
'Squadron' is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
The TAG will allocate AEW missions in accordance with aircraft availability as they always have done. The RAF will not be able to task the aircraft without the say-so of NATO. It took quite a while for the RAF to realise this when the Sentry came into service over 30 years ago with senior officers regularly being told that they cannot ring the Squadron to demand an aircraft for their exercise and to go through NATO.