RAF chief predicts controversial takeover of Royal Naval air power

Daily Telegraph ^ | 07 Jun 2009 | Sean Rayment

[sukhoi-30mki]

RAF chief predicts controversial takeover of Royal Naval air power

The head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, has sparked a major turf war within the armed forces after questioning the future of the Royal Navy's jet aircraft.

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent Published: 8:30AM BST 07 Jun 2009

The Chief of the Air Staff told The Sunday Telegraph that rationalisation in the armed forces would lead to the RAF running all combat jet operations.

The move would effectively neuter the Royal Navy's maritime air force, the Fleet Air Arm, leaving the service with just a small complement of helicopters.

The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), a former Tornado pilot, accepted that the decision would be controversial but said that such consolidation of air power was "inevitable" and added: "We have got to kill some scared cows to make ourselves more efficient".

His comments were made amid increasing signs of friction between the service chiefs.

Last week, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the head of the Royal Navy, attacked his British Army counterpart, General Sir Richard Dannatt, for suggesting that the military's two new aircraft carriers were Cold War relics.

Sir Glenn, 55, heaped praise upon the Typhoon, the RAF's controversial multi-role combat jet, which, like the carriers, has been widely dismissed by many senior officers as a waste of money.

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[Pentagon Leatherneck]

“This sounds like a classic power play.” Exactly. Not unlike what happens regularly within our own DoD. It’s all about rice bowls.

TC