The Royal Air Force (RAF) will emerge from the current UK Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) with only two types of airlifter, two types of fighter and two types of helicopter. That much was confirmed here Tuesday when Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton, Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), spoke to journalists after delivering a presentation on Combat ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance). A few hours earlier, British defense secretary Dr. Liam Fox told his Farnborough audience, “The current defense program is entirely unaffordable.”
These comments are bound to generate a fresh round of chalet chatter on the last trade day of this year’s Farnborough show. Will the government dare to cancel the A400M airlifter in favor of the RAF retaining both the C-130J and the C-17? If not, when exactly will the C-130Js be retired? The two fighters must surely be the Eurofighter Typhoon and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the long term. But will the Harriers be chopped immediately, and what about the Tornado GR.4 force? The helicopter choice is already made: the RAF’s Merlins will be transferred to the Royal Navy, leaving the service with Chinooks and upgraded Pumas.
