The problems start further up the chain when inter service 'willy waving' starts.
True.
As for the silly air-to-air kills stats - so what? When did the RAF (or the RN, for that matter) last drop a bucket of sunshine on an enemy?
It's called deterrence - and that's why the F3s didn't
need to kill anything in GW2. The deterrent effect of the F3 air presence was in part sufficient to keep the Iraqi air force on the ground.