Latearmlive spotted the flaw,
and God help me but having read
God help me, but the RN doesn't consist solely of the FAA.....
Yes it does...The fishheads are merely there to drive the flightdeck around.... Without WAFUs there is no need for any fishheads....
...I find myself agreeing with VVHA, which is surely a sign of madness!
Since 1939 offensive ops have been carrier centred - now some of us think that the SSN probably trumps a carrier, and is a lot less vulnerable, so we maybe don't quite understand why the RN wants to end up as two carriers with a dozen jets on board, limited AEW to make things 'frisky' - nothing like a pop up contact within ASM range to speed the day up - supported by two fisheries protection vessels, 6 RIBs, an SSN that the computer insists is landlocked, and an urge to retire the only helo that did anything useful (from a force protection point of view).
I (honestly) wish you the best of luck, despite being crabair in my former life, as ex maritime I spent 100% of my study time looking at ships (mainly, it must be said, with a view to sinking them). You need CAP, you need a better AEW platform, and then you need something that's good at bombing people. As best I can see, this defence review and your leadership did very little to provide any of these.
I think you've been stuffed - and like many maritime blokes this gives me no joy at all.
Dave
*Edited repeatedly due to problems with the quote function <g>