67 Wing
The 1997 and 2010 Defence Reviews both concluded that without
carrier(s) there might be no balanced joint forces for all the places of the world where our interests
could be at threat. SDSR thought the real "out of theatre" risk would emerge post 2020. Recents events might suggest this analysis was flawed.
If we were only interested in defending the UK homeland we might need no carrier capability, AAR etc. We do as HMG believes the UK has a role to play on the world stage, one now being played out again over Libya. We need to be able to deal with such unexpected events as well as the more obvious threats. So far we have been lucky with this sudden and unexpected chain of events. If they are contained to North Africa we may remain so. Problem would be if they are not.
