Pub....you are talking spherical man-bits if you think that the only people who could operate the AH-64 as a theatre asset are the Crabs. Did you think when you wrote that comment that the army has no concept of strategic deployment? If you are correct in that assertion then I think we should all go home.
There are some infrastructure issues that need to be addressed, the hangar problem being one small aspect. As you will be aware, the doctrine for the use of the AH64 will be written on the basis of adapting the US/Cloggy/Israeli use of the machine and applying it to UK ORBAT. Once operational it will be tested under training and re-defined after it has been deployed operationally and will be constantly changing to cope with the changing environment we are asked to respond to.
I certainly think that there is definately scope to re-introduce the AG branch and badge and train them as devoted WSOs. The argument has been made that as the RAF have navigators they are better placed to operate this a a truely 2-man machine as opposed to picking a few pilots and re-training them to multi-task. I have also heard the barking mad nonesense that it should be an all-officer operated machine due to the complexity of its systems, again making it better placed with the RAF as all the pilots/navs are O's. Again, I cannot concur with this thought.
I don't want to drag the thread off topic, but comment was needed. You wouldn't be one of those jealous crab types are you
