I have said this alot, we did not need the FSTA!
You were wrong then and you are wrong now.
6 shagged out, old, single hose tankers do not an AAR capability make! Of course we needed a new tanker aircraft, something was needed to provide us with a more modern capability; something was needed to replace the
26 VC10 tankers we had!!
Ian: "probe and drogue" refers to the totality of the system; strangely though you never here of the alternative referred to as the "boom and UARRSI" system!