Friday, April 08, 2011
Brits to rethink defense cuts in light of war in Libya.
Read it at Sky News
One thing is obvious. It appears that the leadership is dead set against reactivating the Harrier force and for some reason is totally focused on the Tornados.
The Royal Air Force needs to be downsized. It is constantly at war with the Navy and Army --- and seems to be getting a disproportionate amount of defense funds. And its major contribution to the war in Afghanistan was in coordination with the Navy, yet they seem to have garnered all the credit.
Communication with the public regarding capabilities, roles and work done is beyond necessary. Its essential to winning budget wars. The US Marine Corps needs to learn from the Royal Navy. Don't expect policy makers to "KNOW" what you've done, the sacrifices made and the value brought to the nation. It MUST be shouted to the roof tops and publicized. If not then the Corps will face the same issues that the RN is.
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Bottom line is that only the Tornado can launch Stormshadow and Brimstone - the latter needs a radar that the RAF Harrier lacked. The Harrier did have a higher sortie rate when using Paveways off the Invincibles, but only Tornado can launch ALARMs in the SEAD role.
ReplyDeleteSo untill the Typhoon Tranche 2B/3 gets available in sufficient operational numbers, Tornado will be the mainstay of the RAF.
You'll like this(check out the Harrier pic there on the 3rd post :-) )
ReplyDeletehttp://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12344.0.html