Now were just getting silly arent we? (But i suppose I asked for it!) Look at it this way. The RN and Army do very different jobs with (mainly) different requirements in the way of aircraft. The RAF's Bread and butter is in support of the other 2 services. Take away the F3's (or eurofighter) AWACS and maybe the Tankers. And what have you got left? Strike squadrons which are usually coordinted By Khaki or dark blue. Nimrod (RN) AC Squadrons (Army Cooperation - says it all doesn't it?)
I'm quite sure a battle commander would like to have ALL his battlefield air assets under his direct control rather than having to go up a chain of command and ask for them. I mean where the hell is the efficiency in that???? Same with the fish heads. Why should they have to go up the stairs just to ask for MPA/Strike support? They learned that lesson in WW2 when the put coastal command under the direct control of the Admiralty (I thought they had re-learned the lesson with the Creation of FOMA but the RAF brass managed to maneover that post out - Clever Blighters!)
Ideally (If Mr Brown wasn't hell bent on mispending My hard earned "donation") I would like to see the RAF get out of the above mentioned, Retain its fighters/ Tankers/ Awacs / and transport capability but also get a long range bombing platform Ala' The B2 Spirit. It could be paid for/ cost offset by getting rid of Trident and giving the RAF control of the Nuclear deterrent. Then Cancel the Astute program and convert the Trident SSBN's to SSGN's the loss in terms of personell would be no great loss as they are in the main civil servants.
Hey I can dream can't I? - But for the future you have to admitt, with current and future manning levels, is there justification in retaining 3 seperate services? get rid of one and bang goes a lot "Support" (Suits)