Teamchief
Interesting stuff.
glojo
As FB11 says, only working with the Americans and French can train RN personnel for working with catapults and arresting gear. CVS/Harrier cannot, as CVS has neither cats nor traps, nor does Harrier use them.
However, continued Harrier embarkations would mean that chockheads and others on the deck of
Illustrious and
Queen Elizabeth do get exposure of working with jet aircraft, which I believe is an issue causing some concern (as mentioned
here). Additionally, continued fixed wing flying will maintain skills far beyond the flight deck, for example the ship handling and communications aspects.
Earlier on it was reported that the idea of a small number of Harriers being operated by RNR Pilots to ensure continued periodic fixed wing embarkations was dismissed as not practical, too expensive, and not representing good value for money. If it really is uneconomic to operate small numbers of military jets, then how come there are a few Hunters (for example) in private hands? Not only do these include several private operators, but also ones being operated privately to provide training services by
Hawker Hunter Aviation?
In an environment where governments and contractors have to balance ever-spiralling defence costs with budgetary constraints, HHA offers turn-key trials and aerial training support platforms to ease the task and budgetary pressure on front line assets.
Surely these operators would not exist it was prohibitively expensive. I am not talking about deployable assets that can go to sea for lengthy periods, merely a training asset to mitigate against skills loss amongst RN carrier crews.