CDS to go early

[ZuluMike]

that's not an Air Force

So, we would just have Typhoon for FJ, swing roled to fit everything, specialised for nothing?

The RAF's SH capability could be flown entirely by the Army, no reason why not. Our UAVs (or whatever they're called this week) can certainly be flown by any service or even civilian, doesn't even need to be aircrew (and in many parts of the world isn't). The Army already fly their own.

The Army can take over airfield defence from the RAF Regt. SAR is already being civilianised. Obviously, the RN would take over the CVS-borne jet. Can't get rid of that jet or you'd have to get rid of the CVS.

So the RAF would be a (small, often civilian-contracted) AT fleet and Typhoon. When we're home from Afghanistan we won't need so much AT anyway. The Typhoon would not be optimised for any role but OK at most things - but we will have so few airframes you'd struggle to put more than 6 jets anywhere for anything. Fine, if you're happy with a fourth-rate air force and don't really expect them to do anything much. We would be a bit like Greece, but with a much better (second-rate) Navy and Army.

The other European countries turn up at Air exercises with their OK capability, put up a reasonable performance, are embarrassed by the Americans' ubiquity. They have some of the add-ons to their (often) F16s that make them a bit more EW-specialised, or a bit more A-G specialised or a bit more AD specialised. Few can get a look in on CAS. But talk to the pilots and they're happy - they know they're not going anywhere to do anything! Who, apart from us, contributed a meaningful FJ presence to Afghanistan? The French supported their own troops exclusively. The Germans remained based in the safe area and did some medium-level recce (nowhere near the capability of our dedicated recce capability, DJRP and RAPTOR). There were some Dutch F-16 doing a bit (but not much kinetic).

If we were to have troops on the ground anywhere, they would be supported by US air power. So we can't send our awesome Army anywhere the US aren't going to be with us and agree to support us. Unless you can get a handful of (no doubt exclusively RN) F-35s on the CVS in range with any meaningful payload/AAR (again, would probably have to be US AAR). The bigger picture is that a less-capable air force directly means a less-deployable, less independent and less capable Army.

With the above picture, we wouldn't even need 25,000 people. Without the aircraft, we can get rid of bases, support staff, adminers, ops people etc etc. Most of the people at DE&S... Again, fine if you're happy with an air force that does TLP and every other Flag and doesn't show up for conflicts like Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Bosnia. Do we have a foreign policy to match such limited aspirations? Doesn't seem to fit with our perception of our role in the world, but suits me!