Your leader (Flight International, 12-18 March) on the decision to phase out the Royal Navy's Sea Harriers was excellent.
Royal Air Force Harrier pilots and maintainers are unhappy going to sea, while their fleet air arm counterparts are uprooted from the rest of the RN and sidelined. Apart from the lack of fighter cover for the fleet and for ground forces ashore when shore bases cannot be secured, there are other dangers in this strategy.
All too often historians have pointed to the poor performance of the RN's aircraft in 1939. What is equally important is that the lack of naval control of its own aviation between the two world wars meant that there were few senior officers able to appreciate the significance of air power and use it wisely. Others put their ships in positions of danger from enemy air attack.
David Wragg
Edinburgh, UK
Source: Flight International
