There's another letter in todays Telegraph...
Sir - Everyone seems to be missing the point when discussing the Vulcan mission to the Falklands.
It was a cynical attempt by the Air Staff to demonstrate that the RAF had a role in operations at a time when the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Army were fighting the war successfully without the assistance of that service, other than a few seconded aircrew with the aircraft carriers. The lack of fixed-wing airborne early-warning and anti-submarine capability in the Task Force at the time was of much more significance.
Under-funding and under-equipping of the Fleet Air Arm have progressed today to a potentially disastrous level. Meanwhile, money has been lavished on the entirely redundant Air Force toy the Eurofighter, at the behest of the self-seeking occupants of the Ministry of Defence.
Lt Col B.M. Burton (retd), Little Barningham, Norfolk
So the Herc supply drops, the RAF Harriers, the surviving Chinook etc. were of no importance at all...
N
