That's not what I said.
But we never exercised at surge because the 1 Gp maths pretty much stated that a squadron with average competences could be up and running within three weeks. If you look at what HEPC/ JFHPC actually gave the embarking squadrons to work with it was never a huge amount of jets.
NSW that became 800 NAS produced some good stuff in 2009 into 2010 and 1(F) did very well on Auriga. At the end 'the whole team' had Red Crown, Green Crown up to speed etc and were working well with dynamic targeting from the boat as well. In short the investment was paying off.
Did we achieve OC. Yes. Anything JFH did from KAF it could do from the boat. Did it achieve FOC? No. Why? Because FOC was a 20 sortie per day surge and that could require upwards of 80 PW4 in 24 hours and we never, ever, even attempted it.
And you're right, ICBM. It would look ridiculous in a SDSR just as it looked ridiculous in 2010. We should have put ten jets on the boat and seen what we could achieve. The fact we never did is ridiculous. At the very death of the Harrier we had no idea where the pinch points were in sortie generation from the deck.
If I recall correctly Auriga/ 1(F) was given six aeroplanes (with a certain DCINC displaying surprise it wasn't four) and at the same time JFH was putting fourteen up every afternoon at CQWI. A great effort, but a picture that illustrates where the priorities lay.