Winco,
I left Main Building (or Defence HQ as it is now titled) 12 months ago so cannot, with any degree of truthfulness and accuracy, state how some of the decisions arose. It would be fair to say, however, that the inter-Service rivalry that characterised previous years had subsided somewhat when the depth of financial poo was established. In particular both the RN and the RAF were in the same strategic position - we've both got high-end strategic assets currently 'not in the fight' that are vulnerable given the land-centric focus of our current campaign in AFG.
I'm not a VSO, but just one down from them. I have been fortunate to have had a very varied career working within the RAF and another Service, a number of Joint staff appointments and several out-of-Service type jobs, with the Foreign Office, contractors, NATO and the US. Perhaps the one thing that I will take away from this is that the higher one stands, the bigger the problems become. Almost inevitiably, these problems have a political dimension that is outwith our ability to tackle them. I saw little behaviour that typified the 'shiny arsed, self-serving Airships' which some poster allude to on this, and other, sites. Most, if not all, are committed to what is best for the RAF and for our people; unfortunately it is not always possible to put this into practice.