I'm clearly not expressing myself very clearly, judging by the amout people have written in response to arguments I didn't think I was making!
Allthenick - I apologise, your grasp of the history of naval aviation is clearly superior to mine. I did say "ONE of the reasons...". What I was trying to say though, is that the issues regarding the RAF's attitude to maritime air in the 1920s are just not relevant today. It is also a fact that, during the inter-war years, maritime air suffered from underinvestment from BOTH the RAF and RN. In any case, capabilities are now supposed to be developed and funded by MOD centre, so which service operates the kit is frankly irrelevant.
Unfortunately the ranks make up the majority of RAF (but only just) so them voting with their feet wont do the RAF any good.
I don't know what you're getting at here. I was trying to suggest that actually it should be the RN that provides the maintainers and enablers on board. Don't see why that would make RAF ORs leave.
My observation was that I have not yet heard a compelling, RP-proof justifcation for maintaining a tiny cadre of RN fast-jet pilots. Intuitively, I see a lot of merit in it, but I'd like to know what the arguments are.
This is the way I see it, and please correct me if I have misunderstood how the force will be run: if a young man joins the RN to fly JSF, after dartmouth, he does absolutely everything the same as his RAF counterpart. The training, conversion to type and so on, and when he gets to the front line in a mixed RN/RAF force, he is used totally interchangeably with his RAF colleagues.
There are clearly intangibles at play in terms of ethos imbued during officer training etc, but I believe sea-mindedness and an understanding of carrier ops will come from operating at sea, not from some secret effect from wearing gold braid on your shoulders rather than a bar-code. If the RAF JSF pilots are doing this as much as the RN pilots, why shouldn't they be just as good at it? Before you answer, think how you'd reply if I suggested that FAA pilots could never be truly air-minded because they weren't in the RAF - that's clearly not true, so I don't see why it should be different the other way around.
I'm not trolling, or suggesting that the RAF should own everything that flies, but I'm genuinely interested. What are the TANGIBLE advantages of maintaining some RN pilots in the JSF force?
GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU,
If the Carriers we are discussing are to be of any worth, they would be the spearhead of an offensive expeditionary Force and long before land forces were established. The self same operations that the Navy has experience of and trains and exercises for.
Yes, absolutely. And also the self-same operations that an element of the RAF has experience of and trains for, and will do in future as part of the JSF force. Don't see your point.