Sorry, Suit, but have to disagree. The Cold War AD force may have been deemed adequate for public consumption, but wasn't really, despite the best efforts of all involved. The rot set in in 1957 with the Sandys review: AD was to be taken over by missiles. The Frightening was allowed to proceed on the grounds that it had gone too far to cancel, and would not recieve much additional funding (explaining why it took until the Mark 6 to get the larger belly tank and why all the realtively cheap but clever and apparently effective upgrades proposed were never adopted). Of course, the missiles never arrived - apart from Bloodhound, but, oddly enough, the airframes to make up the short fall didn't arrive either.
Pre-Sandys, there were twenty odd RAuxAF fighter units, which although equipped with the Meteor and Vampire (arguably still just adequate against the bomber threat)at the time of the review, were intended to get the Swift (oops) and the Hunter (which certainly was). In addition, the AD force was far larger. It wasn't reduced because there were too many aircraft but beacuse they cost too much in comparison to the wundermissiles that never actually arrived (which their airships had tried to explain).
To slip into the golf bag cliche - we don't have the full bag of clubs.
In addition, there are serious manning problems, which even a deskbound civvy at the Purple Learning Centre can spot, although fellow PPruners are better qualified to run with this arguement than I.
We are at least two and probably four squadrons down for AD. 56 and 74 were initially meant to be flying the F-4 until about now, (getting replaced by the FEFA as it was called when this plan was first mooted). 19 and 92 were, according to some sources, meant to come back from Germany to reinforce UK AD. Instead, of course, they all went.
We tried this - 'ooh don't need this capability now' in the 1930s. This is why we just got away with the Battle of Britain; why the U-boat threat was far greater than it should have been since it took until 1937 for the threat to shipping to be fully recognised; partly why we didn't have effective tanks; etc, etc.
To throw in my second cliche of the evening, those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. We may not see the threat ('the wildcard'), but just because we don't see it doesn't mean we shouldn't take reasonable precautions. There's a near-earth objects committee, for heaven's [pun not intended] sake, so surely thinking about possible AD threats and the need for a slightly larger force - both manpower and machinery-wise isn't beyond the wit of our leaders.
It
is beyond it, though, isn't it?
[edited to slightly improve clarity, believe it or not]
[ 04 October 2001: Message edited by: Archimedes ]