The Future of British Airpower

We need a plan for the future of British air power. My plan is as follows:

Scrap JSF! We should go it with other european nations as with the Typhoon.

Order more Typhoons for the RAF so they can get at least 6 squadrons in operational status. We could also do with a bigger training network as I have been to the TTF and seen that it isn’t big enough for its role. Scrap Project SALAM as it is only training the Saudi’s and surely they can do that in their own country instead of at Conningsby!:rolleyes:

Harrier can go on for as long as needed as it is a brilliant aircraft and is a world beater in its class.

Nimrod should stay in service but we should get new ones built but supplement them with V-22’s for the SAR coordination role as they can operate from small airfields all over the UK.:o

The navy should go with the E-2 for AEW as it is a small purpose built off the self aircraft and is one of the only good American planes ever built.:cool:

The RAF E-3’s can remain as they are as they are better than the American version and even the American one is quite good.

Sentinel goes on as planned and goes from there.

UAV’s start to bring recon and maritime surveillance. To go this we make more of our own UAV programs and go for there.

Tornados get fully replaced by Typhoon or a Typhoon derivative. This needs to be fully in service by at most 2025.

The Lynx Wildcat program should be sped up so that we can get them out to Afghanistan and put them on the latest generation of naval ships.

The Merlin should be supported by Westland by them supplying some in the field at airbases within the UK.

The Chinook should go on with their current glass cockpit upgrades and we should get more to send out to Afghanistan.

The Hawk should be supplemented not replaced by the EADS Mako. Also the Tucarno should remain in its current role for many years to come.

The Tutor and Firefly should do their current jobs as they are perfectly suited to them.

The King Air should remain in its role as it hasn’t been in service long. We also need to find a replacement for the Dominie as it is getting a bit ancient.
I recommend a Dassault Falcon 900 derivative for the Dominies training and VIP roles.

The helicopter training is fine as it is but could be scaled up slightly with orders of new helicopters.

The Apache should remain.

The Tristar and VC-10 should be replaced asap with the Airbus tankers.

The C-17 should be bought in larger numbers and the A400M program should be sped up to supplement the old bird of the C-130.

Please feel free to put down more ideas for this plan so we can make it in to a petition to hand in to Downing Street.:)

Nick