Beagle
As you have stated, a mission specialist will be carried on certain missions. I have been led to beleive that all new a/c will have a Link system and a fully integrated DASS (except Merlin coz it was conceived 15+ years ago, and may not get any of this even at its mid-life update sometime next year!). If this is the case, where is the expertise going to come from?
The AEOp (sorry WSOp) branch is on the rise! You mark my words
1st Threshold
Edited to remove correct spelling at sauce