A and C, thank you for your post. You are quite right that some people do indeed question the need for a separate UK Air Force and would like to see it returned to the separate air arms of the Army and Navy from whence it came. That rather misses the point that I was trying to make though, and obviously failed to do so. My fault, for which I apologise.
By using the word demise I was trying to imply a withering away of a once powerful force to a state of impotence, due to the ever spreading contagion of unairworthiness amongst its fleets. That is the real implication of the grounding of the ACO fleet, a fate shared with the RAF's maritime fleet. It is the tip of an airworthiness iceberg that infects every RAF fleet, operational or otherwise.
All that is needed to start the long hard road of regaining control of airworthiness is for the RAF to acknowledge that it was its own VSOs that caused this situation and for its subsequent cover-up. Then and only then will the vital need for separate and independent Regulator and Investigator, from the MOD and each other, be made clear.
That isn't going to be achieved by committee, it can only be done by one person, of sufficient stature and power, to force through such an acknowledgement. Once that happens then the real work can begin, and the sooner the better.
Time is of the essence, for the withering away continues until such time that it can be checked.
Self Regulation Doesn't Work, and in Aviation It Kills!