Braking Stop
GR4 mates should be careful of thinking that they won in the SDSR. I'm sure that they all breathed a massive sigh of relief when the announcement was made.
My take on it is that both the Harrier and the GR4 lost two front line squadrons. The difference of course is that for the Harrier that was the entire fleet. The bit that is putting peoples backs up are the views from certain corners (who also have naff all in the way of experience [but perhaps choose a
nom de PPRuNe that would suggest otherwise, current company excepted (I think)]
) that put forward the view that the entire GR4 force should have been sacrificed to maintain JFH (or, perhaps, to be more precise fixed wing FAA
). In an ideal world the Jag would not have gone until the Typhoon was fully ground attack capable and the GR9/GR4 would remain at its pre-SDSR (i.e 2008) strength until F35B (or C) came online (and the same could be said for MR2/MRA4, VC10/FSTA, C130/A400 etc etc). Sadly, thanks to some woeful mismanagement across the entire MOD, we do not live in a perfect world and we must get on with life with what we've got. It would have been nice if we had cut our cloth accordingly as far as world domination/policing is concerned but such is life.
The Army must be praying that we put boots on the ground in Libya .... but not until 2015! But if they do go in at what expense will it be to the broader defence .... i.e F35C
Who would work in RP