Well I didn’t say no trouble:D But I do feel it is an overplayed issue.

If the ball drops as it did in 1982 it is amazing what can be done by our armed forces. My point is that with modern training resources they are in a better position today to maintain a nascent capability.

As for Sharkey if I had been the base commander at Brize when the temper tantrum happened I would of picked up my phone and asked for a random VC-10 pilot and the lowest ranked liney to be sent up to the office. I would then ask Sharkey to repeat his complaints to them about how they were jealous because they hadn’t seen real combat like him and how they had been lazing about. I would of been very interested to see if Sharkey left with all his teeth intact after the crewman explained the hours of hard work they had done resupplying the task force to ensure “brave warriors” like Ward were able to fight and just maybe they were just a bit too busy and just dog exhausted to worry about his seniority – or lack of it!

The consensus opinion agrees with you; indeed I do too surprisingly. But there are a lot of ‘light blue’ oriented opinions out there that are pushing for a complete RAF takeover of carrier aviation. This would be an unmitigated disaster.

In that I totally agree it would be a disaster for the RAF to totally try and take over carrier aviation its been tried before and it didn’t work! But in the current climate if both services want to get what they need then they will have to work together pure and simple. Also over the years I have seen plenty of evidence of the inability for the dark blue to get a chip off their shoulder about the RAF, actually I have seen fairly despicable behavior at times (like Sharkey Wards temper tantrum when he came back on a VC10 or the treatment of RAF GR3 crews during the same conflict). It spins in roundabouts to me but if the dark and light blue want to be a valid force in the future especially in the face of the sneaky underhand tricks of the dark green they have to get over some things.

Where has this idea come from that the navy should or would get four jet squadrons? Even during the Falklands they only had three in theater, with the third 809 standing up later using personnel and aircraft scraped up from 899.

With current numbers talked about in the initial batch we are talking one NAS and maybe a small OCU/OEU. It will be shared with the RAF whether people like it or not, all current planning shows the RAF playing a part and people need to get real and get on with it! I do think that initial operations with the F35C will be naval focused because of the work required to stand up for carrier operations. I see after that a rapid draw down of the Tornado GR4 and eventually an initial structure of one NAS and one RAF strike squadron. If we are lucky down the line a further batch being purchased to stand up another RAF strike squadron which will also act as surge capacity for the carriers. That is the lucky aspect of this, due to the large American purchase there is no reason why purchase of further batches could be made later. Also as I have said many times before Rafale will be a regular visitor, maybe even on occasion deploying to operate off the UK carrier rather then just visiting along with the French Hawkeyes.

The fact is the treasury would be quite happy not buying F35 at all! If the navy and RAF want to have a future carrier and penetration strike capability they are going to have to WORK TOGETHER however much it sticks in peoples throats! I have read lots of woe from various posters about the evil RAF and how they can’t work with the RN as well as all their nefarious plans to put the boot into the navy but the fact is if you speak to many air force personnel they share the same suspicions about their dark blue and green colleagues. People have to get beyond this tribal cr@p if you want to see any kind of UK military capability!

Well when a system is custom designed for a service it keeps lots of middle to high ranking officers in work sitting on committees doing concept development work and extended trials. Buying off the shelf cuts out lots of those officer and civilian MOD hanger-on. This is something common to all three services, for example the RAF wants a super duper custom drone designed for them whilst they are having to purchase other ones via UOR and the Navy wants all sorts of custom stuff with Type 26 that again should be taken off the shelf.

I think Omega were taking three ex Australian air force 707 tankers, certainly they would help ease fleet shortage issues. Then again these aircraft were always going to have a finite life and would have to be replace sometime. With the amount of ex airline 767 sitting about the Bedek tanker conversion would be suitable for Omega.

Can the mods rename this thread? I think Omega air 707 tanker down would be more appropriate.

Sir Mike Jackson tells Alex Salmond: British soldiers have only one master

One of Britain’s most respected generals has led a military backlash against Alex Salmond’s claims that an independent Scotland could continue sharing its defence and armed forces with the rest of Britain.