6th RAF Typhoon squadron announced?
Sorry if this is old news and I missed it, but there was an interesting nugget of information in evidence given to the Defence Select Cttee on 17 December last year. The Cttee was looking at plans for Future Force 2020. Asked how many front line squadrons the RAF would have in 2020, Air Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier said, and I quote: "What we'd expect in 2020 is that we'd have increased to 6 Typhoon squadrons and that we'd have by that stage 1 F35 squadron."
I see 4 potential scenarios here - a) I missed the announcement of an increase to 6 sqns; b) The Air Marshall "misspoke", there will only be 5; c) The information slipped out, either intentionally or by mistake; or d) There's another scenario I haven't thought of.
Can anyone set me straight - does this mean the decision has been taken to retain some Tranche 1s (as has been talked about in the past) and stand up a sixth squadron?