There is some irony that an iconic fighter like the Lightning is attributed with BOMBING as its "in anger" mission.
Courtney, I entirely agree.
I joined (or at least was inspired to join) to fly F4s in the FGR role - specifically, II(AC) Sqn in Germany - which looked to 17-year old me to be the ultimate job. Sadly, by the time I got there someone had made the ludicrous decision to replace them with Jaguars. So, being fortunate in having the choice of which (single) role to pursue, I chose AD in the Lightning - as good a grounding in all things aviation as you could get, if time-limited in every sense.
I then tried to swap roles when Binbrook was closing for a) variety and b) to stay single-seat, but was "earmarked" as one of the few to transition to Tornado since all my mates had decided that they were off to Cathay or BA to avoid it. Not until 3 (very professionally fulfilling, I might add) years after that did I get to my dream posting - F/A-18s with the USMC.
Notwithstanding the single role expertise that a specialist outfit can bring to the party - as you would expect, I have the utmost respect for the Eagle dudes - I have never understood the RAF's obsession with it and the complete operational inflexibility that inevitably results. Indeed, I later spent my entire time in MOD trying to overturn the planning assumptions for single-role sqns, albeit that I was not naive enough not to understand that the arguments had been made largely to underpin desired front-line aircraft establishments and thus workshare numbers.
In my view, any tactical FJ aircraft that can't both drop bombs/PGMs and launch missiles is a complete waste of time and money. It follows that the crews should themselves be capable of (at least) multi-role operations. And, having done it in said spangly electric jets, it is perfectly manageable from both a skillset and currency/recency perspective. No doubt someone who's got closer ties to what's going on on the front line can confirm that they are now (all) finally doing so.
After all, and as the banter has always had it: if A-G was hard, A-A guys would do it!
