I think Sharkey is shooting at the wrong target when he compares the (possible) responses of the RAF vs. the RN.
The elephant in the room these days is the ultra-restrictive ROE that our forces work under; far more restrictive than the Geneva convention.
The present ROE, cooked up by being led by the nose by the UN
and the general malaise of several generations having being brought up on wars-of-choice, now mean that whatever our combat power, actually applying it is getting harder and harder.
This may be a choice we are making, to go above and beyond not to kill or injure civilans, but it also means the opportunities to use the full capabilities of our weapons are now vanishingly small. And IS are taking full advantage of that especially in urban areas.
I believe that is why we are concentrating on drone strikes - purely for their ability to persist on the battlefield and wait for the near perfect combination of factors that will allow a 'legal' weapons-release.
It seems or present ROE would have make war criminals of virtually all Allied bomber pilots during the Second World War - so fast-forward to today and despite our undoubted advantages, we have self-imposed a very limited ability to actually use them.
Flug