Originally Posted by
Not_a_boffin
Sadly not. The ship has a full complement, the reason it's taking a little longer is that she's just come out of a very short docking period to fix a particular issue..But before docking down she had to deammunition, which is why she's now back on UHAF.
Nice try. Now remind me again why the RAF requires the Navy to provide defence for the F35 force operating from an unhardened air base within range of a Hezbollah OWAS threat? For the avoidance of doubt this is norlt crab-bashing. The responsibility lies firmly with those in MB who thought that not providing HAS or GBAD on a base within range of Hezbollah was a tolerable risk...
ETA : Not that this absolves the Starmbot of being a bell end.....
Er, because the RAF HAS NO GBAD of any kind and hasn't had since the 1990's when the Bloodhound force was retired without replacement and the RAF Regiment Rapier force handed over to the Army.
Your description of why HMS Dragon is delayed makes perfect sense, but it does raise the question of WHY the RN chose to deploy that vessel and not one of the other two or three operational T45 Destroyers?