Loathe as I am to post in this thread, I feel strangely drawn to it.
Still waiting for the reply about ops off Ocean. Is the ship suffering with all those AAC types on it who can't do OOW?
On that subject, I totally agree that in a frigate or destroyer the OOW piece is true, but I wonder if USN/USMC aircrew do OOW on US aircraft carriers? I'm pretty sure they don't - once you get above a certain ship size (crew size) it is neither necessary nor desirable, just inefficient. This doesn't mean that everyone on board shouldn't do fire party / damage control etc - that is a given. Similarly with divisional cdrs etc.
My second point is that for both CHF and JSF, a considerable (vast majority for JSF) of time will be based on land. If we look at the past 20 years there has been some demand for maritime basing but plenty for land basing and given future resources (ie sod all) a fleet can only do one job at once and can't be held somewhere in reserve in a niche capability.
Last - I find the "pilots join the RAF to fly not go to sea ergo the FAA should fly" argument quite amusing. If you are a fan of that logic then sailors join the RN to sail a ship so shouldn't fly aircraft!
Best we just get on with it as a mix and use the differing areas of expertise to do the job properly.
Mind you, I still think the RAF should give away all SH to the RN/Army and operate all the combat air.
