207592
Sandys believed that missiles would replace aircraft end of story. The vision, if there was one, was that this would then allow HMG to cancel every aircraft type we had under development in 1957 bar the Lightning and Buccaneer, to concentrate instead on cheaper missiles.
ICBM's did supplement manned bombers in the USA and replace the V-Force in the UK for the nuclear deterrent role but in all other respects I consider that he got it as wrong as was possible. By the way, in 1957 he also seemed to ignore that no other country had reached the same conclusion as the UK. It was bye to the Fairey Delta and hello Mirage
Now UAV's are seen as the cheaper alternative to manned fast air which might be plausible in certain scenarios but less so in others. I certainly don't see an outright of end to manned fast jet aircraft in the short to medium term. Sandys missile only vision remains wrong.
As for the RAF being around in ten, twenty or thirty years, that depends on having a sponsoring Nation State. As things stand, might be as well planning to be the Northern element of the EU Air Defence Component
