TOFO,
The expertise is still here - albeit possibly only till Mar 12 (tranche 1 rendundancy exits)!
keesje,
I'm not sure what you mean with your last post regarding A330, A400M, F22 and F16.
Wrathmonk,
Carrier capable may work for some of the roles - and support deployability; however, for the present at least, in order to carry out passive ASW properly you need to be able to carry a lot of sonobouys (or have a lot of aircraft carrying out regular handover procedures) which increases the size and weight of your platform.
Duncs
