Op Allowance or not, it seems to me that current ELLAMY deployments are causing more hardship than most HERRICK OOAs.
The lack of planning means that our already busy guys and gals that have just seen scything cuts across many areas are now off on a 4-monther with about a week's notice - that must surely count as a 'hardship' in some respect. Many of them still face HERRICK and MPA dets (for Typhoon and VC10) on their return
Op Allowance itself is clearly defined as being for those in harm's way by its geographical limits (Afghanistan and Iraq,
AFAIK). The last threat matrix I saw didn't exactly show Gadaffi inviting us round for coffee
Another slap in the face from the decision-making bean-counters.....