Interestingly, Jacko's question asks how much fast air we need to support land forces. Quite rightly that's exactly what the GR4s are doing and Harriers have been doing of late... But, that's 'just' CAS and we don't do ourselves any favours if we forget to argue that air can act independently of land forces quite effectively. I find it interesting how much gets done in Pakistan with UAVs... Of course, there is stuff we can't do without boots on the ground and we can't make an exact comparison, but it has been safer, cheaper and less politically awkward to use Reapers to achieve some of the same ends. Even if we insist on dismissing the possibility of a high intensity state-on-state conflict anytime soon, offensive fast air and UAVs without boots on the ground (or at least our own boots on the ground) could still be exactly what we need in the next war.