Are we sending people stateside for the whole eight or so years?
I cannot help thinking that it would be helpful to have some RN jets (other than the NFSF(FW) Hawks) that are UK based to give flying posts back in the UK. As for recruiting new Pilots and building a cadre for F35/CVF, I suspect that having jets in the UK would help with this too - with a capability (at least partly) now.
The assumption that we would not need carrier aviation this decade now seems so out of date, what with discussion of posible
options including sending the RN to the Middle East in response to hostilities breaking out with Iran.
We live in interesting times.
