Pheasant,
It takes two to tango. I think your assertion that
this was a battle started solely by CDS/CAS/ACAS. The RN were quite contentedly getting on with the mandate given in SDR and re-affirmed by the decision to proceed with the CVFs
Is a little disingenuous. Nobody in the RAF is trying to stop CVF; the discussion was about the proportion of JSF pilots who should be RN or RAF. The SDR (and indeed the decision to proceed with CVF) is entirely silent on this matter. The officer Band did not make the situation any better by trying to insist that half of all JSF pilots should be RN, considering that this would be a much larger number than the RN has been historically uanble to sustain on the harrier force. Furthermore, has it occurred to anyone that since we all seem to be agreed that we have too many fast jets, cutting the Harrier is something we ought to consider in the best interests of Defence, and might not simply be trying to have a go at the FAA?
PS CAS is wrong if he said that RAF 3* and above are exculsively FJ pilots - what about CJO?