jamesdevice,
Nice Try:
"If you think about it, the "bonkers" decision was made years ago, when the RAF were given the original Harriers. Some of you may remember that the original tasking of the UK-based GR1/GR3 fleet was to act as CAS / flying artillery for the Royal Marines in the event of a Soviet push into Norway (as was 3CBAS and elements of 845/846) Would have made more sense to have handed them to Navy control, maybe under a joint manning agreement like 3CBAS used. Then all this interservice conflict would never have happened".
The UK Harrier GR1s/3s which I flew in the 70s and 80s were assigned to the ACE Mobile Force of NATO. As such, Northern Norway was just one of our many options. Others included Denmark, reinforcement of the RAFG Harrier Force, and other options further South, plus operational commitments to places such as Gib, for example. Not all of these options were exercised in peacetime. As a matter of interest our usual Taceval deployment destination was either Denmark or RAFG, not Norway.
Are you related to WEBF by the way?
