Sharkey seems to have an audience in certain corners of the press so it's a good job some commentators have rebutted his rantings. Seriously, FAA chaps - he is embarrassing you now, someone tell him to stop before his claptrap gets published in the press and he gets ridiculed!
Ah, but will he. If he goes to the right "paper" i.e. the Sun, you can just imagine the pejorative claptrap they'd print. Any Red Top would leave Sharkey for dust in terms of subjective narrative, and a good many would believe it.
The job would be countering what they'd print, in the minds of a large chunk of the population. I can just imagine the stock public perception then; "Yeah, they're great them little 'arriers, me and my boy saw one at Saathend last year! This government don't know what its doin' an 'at!"
That said, as I've said before here on pprune, like most people here, I think the Illustrious and Ark Royal would have made a worthwhile contribution with the Harriers as a quick response C.A.S. capability, once the carrier(s) reached the med. However, as a superior alternative to the GR4, no way. I've noticed that someone else has picked up on the point that if the GR4s had been given their marching orders in the SDSR, the GR9s would have been way overstretched maintaining a deployment in Afghanistan. Far to stretched for anything else I'd have thought, with only one R.A.F. sqn and a big F.A.A. one called the Naval Strike Wing.
FB
