All this speculation about what we ough to have as a dedicated MPA platform is pointless. Given the way the whole RAF is being sliced up there won't be anything left in 10 years' time.
All the best lessons of history are being lost and we'll never be able to afford to get back even a fraction of the capabilities we once had. Crass decision-making by our lords and masters have left this country woefully exposed at a time of increasing international instability, in places which we ignore at our peril.
Bases we once had will never re-open and the rhetoric of "cutting the tail, to sharpen the teeth" has been pretty hollow for years.
I dispair.......
MB