Wrathmonk
Dr Fox
found £1.5 billion back in July! As for my (not mine alone) ideas:
Periodic embarkations of US, Italian, or Spanish Harriers aboard Illustrious and Queen Elizabeth will do a lot to keep basic skills alive. Without the basics, the much harder CTOL F35C operations will be much harder to adapt to.
There would be no real costs involved here, as it would not involve us having our own Harriers. The ships will still exist, they will still have crews, and will still go to sea, so this would be a cheap way of maintaining fixed wing skills (and helping our defence relationships).
I also think my question about plans to increase the size of the RNR Air Branch, and the thought of using Reservists (of all three services) to keep certain capabilities ticking over is still pertinent, even if
this idea was dismissed. Perhaps we could think outside the box and barrow somebody else's Harriers for short periods?
The idea of retaining a number of Harriers for the RNR Air Branch was dismissed on cost grounds, However, if we could borrow somebody else's then the support costs become virtually zero. My understanding was that most fixed wing RNR pilots were attached to the RN Flying Standards Flight (Fixed Wing), could this not still be the case? Could we not use other countries simulators and other facilities?
Or, in the light of the Arab Spring and Libya, and the potential for other surprises perhaps
loan/barrow/lease some on a permanent basis?
The lease proposal that I suggested would include a Memorandum of Understanding and keep support costs as low as possible by not having a need for a Design Authority or IPT, and even using our allies' training facilities.
Anyway, going back to that
Telegraph article:
Another officer has told The Telegraph that the loss of carrier deck handling skills could prove "disastrous" with fatal accidents caused by inexperienced ratings.
Is that the cost of NOT taking measures to retain skills? Save now, pay in lives, injuries, aircraft losses, and ship damage later?
This week there has been
this article from the
Guardian that seems to question the land centric nature of the SDSR:
With tough decisions on defence spending still likely, Libya has clearly demonstrated that traditional air and maritime tasks should not be consigned to a cold war era. After a decade focused on the importance of land operations, Libya has returned naval and air capabilities to the fore. As such, Gaddafi is not the only colonel who has lost influence over the past six months.