Sid, you and the dummy have got a really peevish chip on your shoulder re the RAF; the Apache going to the RAF is a none argument invented to have a snipe at the SHF. To my mind the AH choice should have been the upgraded Cobra as chosen by the US Marines over the Apache. The greater number of cheaper airframes should have gone to the FAA as a carrier bourne asset.
Without the AH the AAC have little to offer as the Lynx and Wildcat can carry jack sh1t; it and the Merlin were nothing more than a job creation scheme for Wastelands.
Given that, how much bayonet strength could have been saved had they got rid of the AAC?