Interested to see Jonny Stringer rumoured as third candidate rather than Harv Smyth. I'd have thought
JS more likely to be considered next time around, but thinking about it I wonder if he would have been considered to have greater potential than Harv to go on as CDS (at which Wiggy's replacement will presumably have a shot). RK and
JS both have the intellectual confidence to select and empower the best subordinates, which I'm not convinced either Gerry or Harv do, and Gerry was IMHO uninspiring as both AOC and DCOM. RK's understanding of (and respect by) MOD is unrivalled, and heaven knows the RAF needs to do better there with only one Town post of any consequence being filled by light blue. I couldn't disagree more with the assessment of him as continuity Wiggy: that would have been Windy Gale. It's just that RK is too savvy a political operator to have diverged too publicly from his Boss's line. I for one would be delighted to see him succeed, although capable as he is, I can't see him going on to be CDS, which ultimately (unlike CAS) is an operations job. He will know that, and it might ultimately work in all our favours by affording him the freedom finally to deploy all of that experience and savvy without worrying about what it might mean for his next appointment. The spectacle of Wiggy sticking doggedly to the Departmental line before HCDC, despite it being a racing certainty that he won't be CDS, was just the crowning turd on a disastrous tenure.