That's a bit confusing Tommy. The air to air kills were achieved by RAF pilots serving in RN Sea Harrier units, but the air to ground ones were a mix of Sea Harrier and Harrier GR3. Doesn't the phrase "shot down" indicate a flying target?
Sorry for this pedantic moment.
Anyway, The possible early mothballing of
Exeter and
Southampton has been mentioned elsewhere on the net, such as
here or on
ARRSE. So now we will be down to six destroyers - which sort of answers the question I asked
here regarding the 7th and 8th Type 45s.
A link to the
Sea Jet thread seems apt. Our layered defence isn't looking so impressive now.
However, it would now appear that reports of the demise of
Exeter and
Southampton were premature. Both are due to be decommisioned next year however.
Are the Type 45s being brought into service at the same rate as the Type 42s leave service?