I am told by 'senior' Navy Harrier mate that the Royal Navy has been sending young pilots off to America for a while now on a 'ghost' F18 Sqn in order to train them up, as the Harrier OCU has not had enough seats for the Navy to train many of their pilots- second hand info but he is out there on exchange as i type so may be quite a reasonable source.
Apparently the Navy had wanted to buy the F18 for their carriers 10 years ago but politically it was not acceptable at that time. His comment on the latest rumour being' nice aircraft but will be out of date in 10 years time'
Short term fix but if we are looking ahead then perhaps not the solution -
Just imagine if one of our senior politicians could 'undercover' boss our military organisations at shop floor level and see what really goes on and where cost savings could easily be made.