Smoketoomuch
I'll get laughed at for asking, but could Sea King AEW carry AMRAAM?
Somewhere there is a dusty old paper that you would find interesting.........
In the mid seventies when Dunsfold and Kingston were trying hard to help the RN get what was to become the SHAR the RN used Dunsfold as a venue for a major brief of the Minister of Defence of the day. I sat in the back in case they needed a company pilot input. The various staffers did a really excellent job at explaining the Bear D mid-course guidance threat at 35000ft and that the only thing that could shoot them down in mid Atlantic was a Sidewinder equipped SHAR operating from a Through Deck Cruiser.
As befits such an occasion there were several four stars in the front row looking after the Minister and when the officer at the lectern asked if the Minister had any questions they all looked perfectly happy because the RN had clearly put forward an unanswerable case.
The first question the Minister asked was, “Why not put the Sidewinders on your Sea Kings?”
There followed a very lengthy and very palpable silence broken eventually by the staffer asking his boss if he would like to take that question. Boss declined but he did undertake to study the Minister's suggestion and report back. Eveyone then stood up.
It happened some thirty years ago but I can still see the expressions on the Admiral's faces as they trooped out through the door I was holding open.