The RN's inability to operate unsupported wasn't the RAF's fault
'This was all the more embarrassing as it was the RAF's fault that the British fleet did not have proper fighter cover - the airmen had successfully managed to ensure that Britain did not replace its big fleet carriers and catapult jets when they were decommissioned in he 1970s, arguing that the RAF could provide air cover to the British fleet wherever it might go to war.'
It seems unfair to blame the RAF for the failure of the RN to argue their case. I have heard the argument that all good sailors are a long way away on a boat, somewhere nice, doing beastly things etc, but that does not seem like a good excuse.
Jeremy
Biting the hand that feeds IT
