Mr A,
I wish I could disagree, but anyone with any experience in these here Forces knows you ain't lyin'.
Sorry to double post but i've just seen Archimedes's comment here:
Additionally, you might be interested to know that your complaint that the RN will lose skills in the air-air role is being addressed; the FAA (or so it's reported) will be looking to put pilots in F3s or Typhoons and increase the number of exchange slots with the USMC (presumably F/A-18 unless/until the AV-8B+ gets AMRAAM).
That's not exactly true unfortunately. The US are in the process of cutting back 40% of foreign exchange posts and that includes the ones allocated to the FA2. The SHAR pilots are under no circumstances going to the F3 and mutterings of putting them in Eurofighter have been quickly stamped out due to the promises made to the rest of the RAF force. There will only be the one USMC exchange and the slight possiblilty that there will be 5 F18 exchanges as long as they are UK funded at £3m per year. Now that's saving money!!!
We'll see how skill retention is handled but you can guarantee it'll be a shambles.