A desire to cancel the carriers has nothing to do with understanding the ‘maritime environment’. It has to do with understanding the economic environment, and the fact that tough choices need to be made. That some niche capabilities simply can’t be afforded. That while the Army and RAF have been slashed to the bone since the 80’s the Navy has not borne its fair share of the cuts, and now needs to do so, and that the least damaging thing to give up is carrier air.
Jacko, for a supposedly intelligent man you sometimes really do come over as quite naive. Supposing that even if the money hadn't already pretty much been spent, do you really think for one minute that the benefits would be passed to other requirements? If you really do think this then may I suggest that you look for a journo job that is more befitting to your take on reality- "Now" Magazine perhaps.
And expressing that desire is another matter. While I’ve heard plenty of senior Army and Navy officers banging on about how ‘wasteful’ and ‘Cold War’ Typhoon is, I’ve never heard a serving Air Rank bloke publicly criticize the carriers – observing the nicety that you don’t ‘crap’ on your fellow service’s spending priorities in public. Personally I wish they’d grow some testicles and speak out.
One Nation One Air force Jacko? Ok so the last CAS incumbent may not have grown B0llox but he sure spoke some.
So the RAF is more ‘officer heavy’ than the Navy, which is in turn more ‘officer heavy’ than the Army?
Actually Jacko me sensitive little flower, if you re-read my post then you'll see I was referring to all the services not just the RAF My word you do have a little bit of a persecution complex going on there don’t you?
How astonishing! The more technologically advanced a force is, the narrower its rank structure ‘pyramid’. What a blooming revelation.
Speaking as A former Killick Weapons Artificer with a degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, Please explain why a "technologically advanced force" requires so many officers? The ones I’ve had to deal with (with the exception of the engineers and medical types) in ALL THREE SERVICES have not been MENSA Material. Oh, and BTW I have also dealt with all three services as a Civil Serpent and believe me the RAF has nothing that is any more technologically advanced than the other 2 services.
Et Al - Once again I say to you that people matter. But if there are too many of them then that has to be addressed. Not that long ago I saw a pie chart of the defence budget ( I will try and locate it again) and by far the biggest slice was down to Personnel. It stands to reason that if that were cut then it would make far greater impact on savings than equipment.