It is far more than doing a bit of 'local defence' Sapper. Telic 1 saw the real change in location, situation and operational deployment of RAF forces. TSW, TCW, 2 MT, 85 ELW, JHC all saw RAF going far forward and working off base. The poor guys on 2 MT were regularly bumped whilst trucking as far forward as most anything from the Army and TSW saw some nasty places.
The RAF no longer fights from 'under concrete' and has to go to the same crappy places as the Army. We need to have far more basic military skills, such as patrolling, convoy procedures and contact drills. To me, that is the 'warfighter first' part of the equation.