Interesting thread this. 16 blades said:
The FAA is a flying club for sailors that doesn't even have an offensive capability anymore
Lynx - offensive
Merlin - offensive
SK4 - offensive
SK7 - offensive C2
SHAR for a year or so - offensive
and 16 blades its JFH not JHF. I presume your moniker alludes to you being a Herc (K) mate - an aircraft with a huge offensive capability - not ! (Unless you mean the AC130 flown by the USAF). The reason there is no RN guy in overall command of our FJ assets at the moment is because the crabs very craftily binned 3 Group and moved JFH somewhere else under crab command. Exactly the same mindset that managed to move Australia on paper in the mid sixties to get CVA01 binned ....... You never know when the next reorganisation will take place and although not slated at the moment, you may find the Harrier force or the JSF force under RN command - who can tell? I know of certain RN FJ mates that are being groomed for this type of command .......
Re deployment stories just for info:
My first tour was 40 months, of which I spent 30 months deployed. At the same time (mid nineties), the Crabs didnt go away as much (they were too busy trying to avoid being courts martialled for travel claim fraud in Italy) however I have seen their time away increase over the last decade. Seems to me as time goes on and the Services get smaller and smaller this time away can only increase - the last decade an example of this.
and as for getting a bite - well maybe but morons like you put out so much cr*p that those wannabes with no experience asking innocent questions will actually start to believe the drivel you come out with. Rise Above The Rest - (on all that hot air you spout).
Bismark - the RN will always have the ability to deploy as a UK naval TG under RN command. It just may not happen that much nowadays due to jointery and the nature of ops. And from memory when last a sea with a SHAR sqn and a GR7 squadron for the same number of jets there were [about] 3 times as many GR7 sqn personnel than SHAR sqn personnel.
Ready for the banter, especially from members of the service formed on All Fools Day.
Oggin