What would make sense to me is the early drawdown of the GR4 force once the Typhoon can take on their tasks. For that we need to buy all of the Typhoons ordered. Spend to save.
Except that the Typhoon is an inadequate replacement for GR4. As I have said before, we should have listened to the French during Eurofighter development - then we would have ended up with a strike-biased swing-role fighter that can also operate off carriers instead of being mired in two separate hideously expensive programmes which we (arguably) need, but definitely can't afford.
But having ended up in the situation we are in, we have to compromise - and that inevitably means slashing massively the projected Typhoon fleet. Defence is going to take at least 15% cut in budget over the next few years - so stop dreaming. Where else will the cuts come from if not FJs generally and Typhoon in particular?
Did I miss the page where someone explained how 9/11 could have been prevented through effective use of Air Defence assets?
Exactly - Typhoon is no defence at all against the most likely aerial attack on UK - namely hijack of a business jet. I fly one, and I know how vulnerable we are!