Bit of a daft admin question, but when reading various squadron histories both offline and off, I'm often told that "X Sqn exchanged its Jaguars for Tornados" or "Y Sqn was re-formed on <date> by renumbering Z Sqn". But what actually happens in the real world to physical assets, human or otherwise?
With squadron "renumbering", I take it that all personnel and airframes stay in place, and it's a "simple" case of laying down standards, (because I'm guessing their current numberplate is getting mothballed at best) and receiving new ones, and some rapid repainting of aircraft, sewing of new patches, relocation of trophies etc.? So a station visitor coming back after a month would see the same airframes and personnel in the same hangar, just dressed a bit differently?
Does "X Sqn exchanged its <oldtype> for <newtype>" actually mean that an existing, or brand new, squadron was renumbered as X Sqn? If a brand new type, would the squadron-sized unit being built from the ground up have had a squadron numberplate of its own temporarily or a different designation? Or did X Sqn go through a lengthy conversion phase, with personnel rotated through the relevant OCU until the transformation was complete?
Thanks for any information or personal anecdotes - it just intrigues me from a historical point of view.