Originally Posted by
SOSL
Hi PN. Quite agree with your post #8, but in the 60's we weren't really an expeditionary Air Force (see o.p.). Much earlier and much later we were.
SOSL, not really. You could not get more expedtionary than Operation Althorpe in 1964. Sqn after sqn flowed down the route to Malaysia and beyond. While we had an operational priority we got the ST. For exercises we were much lower down the pecking order, much as the OP said. For exercises we had second call on ST so had to hire in civair.
Now of course the situation is the same. Operations get our own assets for the reasons stated previously and exercises get what is available or civair.