RAF starts round three of inter-service war

It didn't work the first time, or even the second time, but the RAF is again trying to take over — or abolish — the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm:

The Sunday Times reported on the new RAF takeover push yesterday, which is apparently operating under the unofficial slogan "one nation, one air force". It appears that Air Marshals Glenn Torpy and Jock Stirrup, heads of the RAF and of all three services respectively, would like to shut down the joint RN/RAF Harrier jumpjet force, which would put an end to fixed-wing aviation in the Navy.

When the two planned new aircraft carriers finally arrive — it is an open secret that there are plans to delay the ships — their air groups would naturally be furnished by the RAF, which would by that point be the only British service set up to fly jets.

We've been here before, more than once.

In the dark days of the 1920s and 30s, against the background of the General Strike and the Jarrow March, the cry for economies placed the Fleet Air Arm under RAF ownership in just the sort of plan now developing. There was one nation, and one air force. As one would expect, the Fleet Air Arm was the Cinderella of the RAF, neglected in favour of the strategic deep bombers which the air service institutionally loved (and continues to love) more than anything else.

In 1939, on the eve of war, when the Royal Navy finally regained control of its own aircraft, it was left with pitifully weak air cover. The fleet's main strike plane — the famous Swordfish, aka "the Stringbag" — was an aged biplane, almost a flying antique. The service never acquired a proper carrier fighter through the whole war, as the pre-war RAF had seen no need for such a thing — indeed, had felt little enough need for landbased fighters in some quarters. The fact that carriers had served since World War I as bases for the RAF rather than as warships had led the navy to buy too few of them and to hope wistfully that big-gun battleships might retain their old dominance.

Given the current British government's economic straits, the third time might yet be the charm for the expansionist RAF, to the severe detriment of the Navy.

Also, linked from the above article, a site about the never-built Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carriers.