New bases?

[Nnthusiast]

interesting... how many tornado aircraft were introduced in that 4 years?

its an interesting comparison when looking at the total Tonka force introduced in that period and the 35 over 11 years for the F35

Then you have the LM figures for service life of 8000 hours.

No wonder they only fly a few a week!
The RAF must be wondering (internally of course as it wouldnt do careers good to 'wonder' in public) how the heck they will fight another war (yeah ok....typhoon), but if the other side are using more stealthier stand off aircraft, the Tiffie wont be much of a match, and they must be raking up hours (whats their shelf life in hours anybody?).

[Agent K]

Ultimately, for better or worse the RAF and indeed all UK military caopability requirements are based on perceived threat and perceived operations the UK government wish the armed forces to be involved in. This, I assume, is done with the Chiefs of Staff and he MoD who all bear the brunt of the complex equation of capability vs volume vs budget.

I think it's fair to say, or at least in my opinion, that cuts have been too savage (and more % of GDP need to be spent on defence) and capability has been lost or at the very least stretched. Back in my youth I remember 220 GR Tornado's being ordered for ground attack/strike/recce alone, to supplement Harrier and Jaguar with Tornado ADV in Air defence, with the Typhoon coming later to replace Phantom and Jaguar. Now there is Typhoon as multi role, perhaps 100 or so operational, covering all these tasks. That's not a lot.