CAS procedures - I'm afraid that there are some (possibly included the bearded Mr ward - or the FT editorial team) who haven't quite grasped ATOs, GCAS and TIC response. If you don't understand you would have thought that you wouldn't go into print - but (sadly) that isn't generally the case with today's media moguls.
Just because a mission is tasked 24 hrs ahead (or a year ahead for that matter) doesn't mean that it can't react to an incident of higher priority (like a TIC situation). All CAS-capable aircrew can move easily from one task to another (and I know that AT, SH etc etc can too - but this is a CAS discussion!). So, you stick a pair on the ATO for an 0900 T/O - then you can get the jet ready, plan sleep times and generally manage your assets. You steam off to your 1st task (probably of several) and stooge around providing support to the man on the ground. Something happens 100 miles away and the C2 net tells you to move sharpish to new task - GR4 is faster than GR7/9, but in reality the arrival time at new task will be the same. Amazingly, your CAS ac has reacted to a TIC in sub-10 mins despite having a task that he was allocated 24 hours ago.
In case you haven't got enough ac for 24/7 cover across the country - you task a few pairs/ac to GCAS (Ground Alert), scrambling them as required for tasks that require it. Result = sub-10 mins response times across your country. Does depend on location of bases and other tasks, but it seems to work in A'stan and Libya.
Sadly, I couldn't get an article published in the press because I ran the CAS war in A'stan for a few months from Kabul - apparently I knew too much!!!
