Climebear
Agree with your synopsis but was not referring to troop delivery, I was alluding to another capability highlighted by CrabInCab on Page 2 of this thread:
with one Sea King HC4 attacking and sinking an Iraqi patrol boat with a machine gun.
Then again I suppose any aircraft can have a machine gun bolted to it if need be.
Pr00ne: The last time I had my webbed feet on a CVS there was the same number of GR7 and SHAR, yet the number of air force squadron personnel on board was substantially more than the RN squadron personnel. The GR7 squadron had not brought all its jets, obviously, however they stated that they were still operating their jets left ashore somewhere and thus one would assume they had left sufficient people ashore to do this. I think the fewer number of people is not something to score points about, its just that an embarked FAA squadron has, by nature of its experience, been whittled down to the bare minimum over the years due to the requirement to be as efficient as possible and take up as little space as possible whilst embarked.
Oggin