PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - How much fast air to support 1) a Brigade, 2) a Division
Old 19th Jan 2011, 23:05
  #41 (permalink)  
Easy Street
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Wherever it is this month
Posts: 1,794
Received 82 Likes on 38 Posts
Jacko - your list of priorities is actually fairly representative of the outcome of SDSR, if you accept that cuts across the board were inevitable.

Obviously we kept a carrier and binned MPA, so perhaps 6 and 7 are the wrong way round. However my belief is that the carrier was retained for contractual, political and inter-service reasons, rather than military necessity, so in purely theoretical terms you could argue that the outcome is roughly in line with your thinking.

The only major disparity in your list is that CAS/BAI/AI have taken a major hit with the withdrawal of GR9 and the reduction in GR4 numbers, with no foreseeable possibility of Typhoon filling the (deployable) gap. That is a reflection of the Army thinking that while CAS is nice to have on Op HERRICK, it is not essential to the current strategy.

If you accept that Jacko's list is roughly in line with the outcome of SDSR, then why his angst? Along with other posters I would argue that the quantity is now the problem; "more with less" has been taken a step too far.
Easy Street is offline