"The established principle (which took a bashing post Options for Change) was that those plates with the longest overall service survived any cutbacks."I don't believe it's ever been that hard and fast, and if it was, how did 617 escape after disbanding as a Vulcan squadron, or as a Tornado GR1 unit (when it effectively became what had been 208)?
617 is a special case: it was awarded its standard purely for its wartime service and not according to the 25 years of service rule applied to all other units save one. 120 is the other unit in this position.
There was agreement (repeated in several sets of Air Staff minutes over the years, in public domain) that these two units would be 'protected' as a result of this: thus, the GR 4 force could be cut back to just one squadron, and it would be 617 if this held true; 120 would be the sole remaining Nimrod unit in similar circumstances (and assuming no 'rule' changes).
What happened with the 12/208 situation was that 27 was renumbered as 12 (breaking the 'rule' about not renumbering extant units), rather than 208 being renumbered 617.
Does 25 even have a longer period of service than 19, or 56? How about XIII?
25 does have longer service than 19. When the F3 unit stood up, 19's plate was in use, and couldn't be reassigned. When 19 disbanded, 25 might have been renumbered, but the rule against this was applied. Now, since service as a Reserve Sq doesn't (or didn't, it may have changed) count, 25 has longer service than 19. It doesn't have longer service than 56, but the 25 plate was in use when 56 gave up its F-4s, so couldn't go. I think it's also fair to note that the renumbering rule doesn't apply to reserve units, which is why 65(R) became 56(R). So by this token, 45, 64,79,151,234 and 65 all disappeared.
XIII is a slightly odd case, and I suspect that because of its Canberra
PR role, it was deemed an appropriate plate for the GR 1A.
Not sure about why 99 was chosen - although it has a longer history than 53, the other contender.
It may be that the past history in a role is having ever more effect. We may see some hefty renumberplating when Eurofighter emerges: although I wouldn't bet on it, I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of 19,56, 74 and 92 ended up with Eurofighter GBmH's finest peroduct to date.
I don't doubt that there is politicking over plates, though, and would agree that the rules are not applied as rigourously as they might be: if they were, there'd be less contention, but it would also suggest that some well-loved numbers might never appear again.
[ 16 October 2001: Message edited by: Archimedes ]