Timzsta
Thank you for your reply, as I told you I have a very small brain, and am more than willing to listen and be informed. As I said my knowledge of maritime is limited - all I was trying to do was point out what I considered was an illogical arguement by Alphaleaderuk reference the Nimrod and the UKs requirement for ASW assets.
I am not an air defender either, but for what it is worth my opinion is that with its potent mixture of radar and weapons the Shar IS THE BEST AIR DEFENCE AIRCRAFT THE UK HAS! My knowledge of the RN and its capabilitys is general, but I believed - rightly or wrongly - it was largely slanted towards ASW, with the Type 23/Merlin combination forming over half the surface assets. This opinion may well be wrong - I am more than willing to be re-educated. Perhaps I should go away and do some research before I dare to post again! I have not had time to read about British Defence Policy of late because I have been too busy doing my job in an overstretched and undermanned part of the RAF (which I am sure applies equally to the RN and Army), where none of the flight commanders ever turn down tasking (no one gets promoted by saying no) whilst trying to prevent my marriage and family life from going down the tubes - besides which it is a boring read, and you can't just flip to the back page to see if the butler did it!!!
I have no wish to get into a slanging match, and have nothing at all against the RN (I do actually have this strange concept that we are ALL ON THE SAME SIDE!!!), but feel I should point out that I made no comments defending the F3 or on the value of the Jaguar. The F3 may or may not be a valuable asset, once again I am not in a position to say - other light blue guys have defended it - but I do remember reading once that it is far easier to turn a good fighter into a bomber (F-15 for example) than a good bomber into a fighter (the RAF tried that with the Blenheim in 1940!!!).