Disagree completely. We are given C@*P kit, which, we the people on the front line make work. This is not only true for the RAF but all of the services. Sometimes I feel we should just say no every now and then. Why are we given kit that isn't fit for purpose??? To keep European jobs that’s why. I don’t care who makes it, just give us kit that works and is reliable. Please for crying out loud stop spending money on stuff we don’t need, i.e. hundreds of typhoons and buy something that really is needed, i.e. helicopters and airlift.
ML you're right, we are given poor kit, but some of it is good and we shouldn't automatically consider everything the US forces get is good. Or that they can use it properly: I saw some real buffoonery by F15E crews in northern Iraq not too many years ago
I worked in OR for a couple of years, then in Air Plans, and we do buy stuff because someone else says to to do rather than for the OR and because it's right. But Typhoon is good, and we do need some. We have already come down from 244 and lower would be a bad plan. Of course we need more choppers, but that's just for the present scrap and it might not be so for the next.
McD