Well, Fox Four, this discussion has been going on for years in one form or another. The Arrows have always been a bit of a sacred cow, ending up getting whatever they say they want because they are such good advertising for the RAF and British industry.
Regarding the replacement jet trainer, I would say we've seen this all before. Nothing will happen until it's almost too late, Hawk T1 gets extended, new buy comes along late. I would imagine that we will decide to go for a jet because of the handling characteristics of Typhoon , Tornado (for a while) and the futue jumping bean (if it ever comes). The Arrows will end up being equipped from that inventory.
A Tucano (or it's repalcement or similar) just wouldn't cut it. What image do we need to promote? The front line
used to do stuff like this, but that was in Hunters when pilots were getting a hundred hours a month and we had more aircraft than we could shake a stick at. The Reds are the best in the world (can't believe I just said that) because of the hours of dedicated practice they get and having dedicated jets - so no competition between sqn training, QRA, ops, display flying, etc.
Not sure how we man (or woman) them now, though. The Harrier boys always used to insist that they were the only people that could possibly do the job!
