Gentlemen, let me offer the following input - as a still serving Nav. The trade of Nav/WSO is dead, the school has been closed, and all that remains is a few in the system trying to find gainful employment until they retire.
To consider the employment of Navs/WSOs on any NEW system, whether the argument for doing so is valid or not (and that's a whole different debate), is a MISTAKE! You will have to replace them with another trade at some point, as the pool of Navs is finite and shrinking, so why not start out with that trade from day 1 and save yourself a lot of trouble in the long term....
That's my own perspective, feel free to disagree, after all, that's what these forums are all about.......
Edited to add - as an aside, why are we preserving Navs/WSOs as MPA seedcorn? In a few years time we won't have a realistic pool of Navs/WSOs to man any MPA fleet we might acquire (in your dreams?), or a means of replacing the few we do have left in the long term (unless we recruit directly off the high street and put people through the RN observer training course?)
Last edited by Biggus; 21st Nov 2011 at 09:52.