Yes, but what good are a couple of sqns of fast jets when NZ impact on good relations in the Far East and humanitarian aid are better served by AT and rotary assets.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to see RNZAF with a FJ capability again. But money is tight. Disaster relief and help where it is really needed are better goodwill ambassadors than punching somebody's lights out.
I will probably stand corrected here, but were the NZ A4s ever involved in a 'hot war', and what were the losses?
I've never met an unpopular Kiwi and you guys are always welcome in Blighty. But the cost of running FJ with such a small population doesn't justify the costs. I wish it were not thus, but if you had to crunch the governmental numbers, health care, roads, education, power supply, care of the old, the sick, ex-politicians and all of the rest leave a couple of FJ sqns way down the list of 'must haves'.
I agree with you, but see the economic arguments against.