I am only dealing with the facts every day, rather than reminiscing about the good old Cold War days and assuming I know everything about today's Royal Air Force
Which is precisely why I started this thread - to get some up to date opinion from people who actually have some current experience.
On this matter, though, maybe I am hyper-sensitive, but there does seem to be an underlying current of sneering about ex-aircrew "of a certain age" on here. No-one can help their age, anymore than they can help their gender or race. You can't really blame old farts, whose daily lives are maybe somewhat dull, for reminiscing about the time when the Queen paid them to fly around the world in nice shiny aeroplanes, visiting foreign places that more often than not were neither sandy nor dangerous! (Although I did manage 6 months in Aden myself, and got shot at [he missed!]).
Interesting crop of opinions on UAS's - thanks - not much agreement though.