Yes I agree TS we need to maintain some form of FW capability. RW not that good for LRDI. but nor is a 130 (K?) when they were talking about real high stuff with enough fuel to return home whilst preserving adequate stall margins at low enough despatch speeds. A400M will be far better (the sales man told me and we all belived him).
What I think we still need is a couple of handfuls of airborne troops that can use squares both stand off an FF using o2. I don't think we need a tail 800+ long with all the "clingons" as my ex Gp Capt (who became the head of the sports board) used to call them, to support that capability.
LLP was optimised for under the radar cold war scenarios but now it is the other extream (high - above MEZ) the commanders who beat the para reg drum may be out of step but I would love to understand their costed business case / argument.
My argument may be defeated as the French did use Static Line round (Looked like T10s) to good effect in Mali to sweep up fleeing insurgents. but not in huge numbers. Like us they could not generate the Tac AT.
TBT, I was a bit worried but I did not have you down as a swimming pool attendant. Do I expect some fall out from Spectre 150? If I recall Spectre was the high teck string we used instead of dacron on some chutes. It was a bit hard on the rag packers fingers and very kinky!