The Perfect Storm
This is brilliant,
I must be honest in that I was slightly embarrassed when the whole Torpy v RN Fixed Wing/Carrier debate was going on, but it now looks pure genius. Not only have we managed to 'slam dunk' the RN FAA fixed wing community (forever),we are about to do the same with their amphibious rotary community.
So far they have hidden behind an RN 2* at Cap ALM and an RN 2* at JHC, both I am sure good people and truly Joint. But what they didn't expect was the RAF light blue machine to very cleverly out wit and completely out play all of them to ensure the continuance of light blue control of things that fly.
When the next Comd JHC takes over (who is.....wait for it....RAF) then I give CHF 5, maybe 6 years (when does the Sea King go? When do we pull out of Afghanistan?) before it is absorbed into a 'Joint' Maritime Force at RAF Benson (under the already established RAF SHF HQ).
I will wager that CHF will never recover from this, and even with all of the best work that Navy Command and CHF can muster they will not be able to convince us (or the bean counters) to give up our Merlins.
Possession is 9/10 ths of the law, and tell me how many Jungly pilots for RWS transition instructors they have,one or two maximum I am led to believe - lets just call it quits and call them exchange pilots until they transfer.
My advice to any CHF pilot is to jump ship early - of course we are going to need a bit of maritime experience to get the Freaks up to speed for embarked ops, but we in the Chinook fleet do it well enough when required. But if you do not jump soon, then it will be too late, as we do not need all of the CHF aircrew to bolster our Merlin fleet that is for sure.
A well thought through and very clever method of ensuring our primacy of the air - my previous embarrassment is replaced by respect for some very astute and forward thinking work.