FB
Not sure what you mean by the RN "taking on the RAF's role". Operating weapon systems from ships (yes, that includes aircraft) is a Navy role, no?
WEBF,
The point I was making refers to the blunt choice of whether we should have Harrier GR9s or Tornado GR4s. This apparently was,is non-negotiable. It had to be one or the other being put out to grass. Your's and Sharkey Ward's single concern is that that so & so Sir Sephen Dalton, who's decision it was I suppose, seeing as they are both a part of his ORBAT, chose to hang on to the Tornados. Now bearing in mind that all three services have been jockying for position, as it were, in order to avoid their own crowd being sold down the river, one can imagine why Dalton, forced with such a decision, decided to keep a hold of the more prominent and more ellaborate aircraft. Also the one which he didn't have to hand operational control of half of, to another service. I keep saying this, the maths are so simple; 45 Harriers versus 136 Tornados, you're the C.A.S. the smaller figure is about 50% under direct operational control of the 1st SL, the 136 number are all part of your fiefdom. Which of the two are you going to yield to the Treasury? If he had held onto the Harriers, he would have consigned half of his service's principal role, such as it remains, over to the Navy, thus leaving a much bigger and fatter question mark over the question more often asked by the other two services, "just what are the R.A.F. for". Regardless of the advantages of having a single carrier available with 12 Harriers, surely the ability to deploy to nearby airbases four times that many aircraft and with the ability to carry a wider range of air to ground ordnance is what he's going to consider favourable, especially when 10 more aircraft are constantly deployed at Kandhahar. Bearing in mind the resources and personnel to support these simultaneous campaigns, the Harrier is the obvious choice! For the chop.
Its purely business of course, I'm sure if Sir Stephen were given a wider choice in the SDSR nothing of the sort would go, neither Harriers or Tornados or anything else for that matter. It would be a Strategic Defence and Security Review and not a Fiscal Savings Review.
FB
