FB11
That is good to hear. However, more training will make the whole process easier - so embarkations of foreign (or other) Harrier can only help the transition to CVF easier. Not so long ago the
Telegraph quoted a senior (sic) RN Officer concerned about flight deck crews and others losing the skills needed to handle fixed wing aircraft on deck -
source.
It leaves the capability issue though. In fact it might increase American perceptions that we are not pulling out weight, particularly as the numbers of Tomahawk capable submarines dwindles later this decade.
GBZ
Privately operated Harriers? Art Nalls does it with his Sea Harrier, without support from BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, and so on.
If that was feasible it would sort of discredit the MOD line that the Reservist/Harrier proposal (which I learned of from the
Telegraph last December, and assumed was an attempt to demonstrate the seriousness of Their Lordships' concerns, but was a real proposal) was too expensive. Having said that, a private operator can probably do things less expensively then the MOD. After all no private company would do business like Government - Resource Accounting and Budgeting, ordering people to destroy spares, people being disciplined for saving money, budgets having to be used up by the end of the financial year.
Presumably RN/RNR personnel would also be involved?
cazatou
Have all the GR9s been destroyed? (Before a sale was arranged - should we add business basics to a list of things not understood by politicians?) Are there none intact? Any AV8Bs we might lease/barrow/buy (ideally with support - perhaps a MOU from the US or share facilities with Italy/Spain) anywhere? Any other Harrier/Sea Harrier type aircraft that could easily be made airworthy?
As for personnel - don't ask me, but since the RNR proposal was serious, and the RN was planning on sending guys stateside pre SDSR (and it was assumed that Harrier would stay in service) there must have been sufficient Pilots and others to make the plan feasible (I assume that it would have been a Regular/Reserve mix). Ergo, these people do exist.
But hey - no money for Harriers (does anyone know exactly what costs a small private/RNR force would cost), but endless money for a two week event so people can run around a track..... at roughly £250k per competitor.
FODPlod
Is that a recent picture?
Jimlad/N_a_b/FODPlod/GBZ
Somewhere I have a pamphlet produced by the RN in late 2003, about the maritime aspects of Operation
Telic. It mentions the task group (including
Ark Royal and
Ocean) going from Gibraltar to the NAG without putting into port. This suggests either total reliance on RFAs and chartered shipping, or that certain Gulf states (who were unwilling to take part in the invasion) would allow logistics to flow from their ports. Allowing a few supplies to go from your ports/airfields is one thing, allowing tooled up combat aircraft to operate from them is another.