WEBF - your support for the FA2, FAA and the RN is commendable and in the best interests of the service and the country. BUT THAT BATTLE HAS BEEN LOST. Save your time and effort and go down the pub of an evening or something.
The Government, aided and abeited by the RAF have made up their mind and the decision is final. No more SHAR and no more CVF. Over the next couple of years the RAF will withdraw the GR7/9 from sea going ops. They will sight the recent war in Iraq and operations against terrorists in Afghanistan as the role for the aircraft. In this uncertain and changing world the RAF "has not got the time or the money to be messing about in the North Sea playing at being sailors". I heard words to this effect spoken by Senior RAF Officers as long as four years ago at the inception of JFH during my time in the RN.
If the RN is asked in the future to go into action against any enemy with any kind of air force only two outcomes are possible:
1) The RN does not go and the Government of the time should resign, even if it is a Conservative one, as should they get in at the next election (unlikely) they still have time to reverse this crass decision (but wont - because the money is needed elsewhere for schools and hospitals).
2) The RN goes and hundreds of British servismen and women are killed as the RN is blown out of the water.
Anyone who thinks the US will come to our aid is a fool. US serviceman coming home in bodybags from a US led war is one thing, but from a war supporting another country is different - even if it is the UK. It will not happen.
JSF and CVF will not happen. JSF is already behind time and overweight. From an engineering point of view it is too complex an aircraft and will suffer from appaling serviceability rates. It will be scrapped. And so half way through build the CVF's will have to be scrapped as they are not conventional carriers. The talk of "future proofing" will turn out to be just that, "talk". In reality they are just bigger Invincible class ships and not capable of conventional carrier ops.
Although I am reasonably sure that the Senior Officers in the RN did their best to save the FA2, I believe the First Sea Lord should have resigned over this. The decision was ultimately out of his hands, but that it was he should have done. But alas once someone gets three or more stripes on their shoulder they are concerned with only one thing and that is the furthering of their career.
The RN is finished as a global force. It cannot operate globally without air cover and that has gone now. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. The RN has served our country with great distinction over the last few hundred years. It has proven time and time again to be the finest fighting force in the world. But it lost its last battle, a battle it could never win, a battle against politicians.