[quote=@Massasauga]

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Ahhh, that's an F-15 I certainly do recognise :D 
I was thinking to myself that I really do need to replay those games soon, as it has been a while.

[quote=@Foster]

Well, I was writing more in regards to the ill-fated Harrier II program and efforts to develop a 25mm ADEN that led to nowhere, although it was stipulated that they [i]could[/i] be retrofitted with the old 30mm, the project apparently got canned before that happened in favor of waiting for the F-35.

During which time the sea-harriers started flying themselves to pieces and the entire British carrier-program/naval-aviation was put on the chopping-block under the terms of "austerity". Which I suppose this being alt-timeline is a good thing.

Also, congrats on the gainful employment. Best of luck on adulting your way to success.
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Ah, fair enough - the way your original post was worded didn't quite come across that way to me. I don't think British Harriers flew with the 30mm guns that often anyway, but I know they were part of the inventory and regularly come up in info about the English Harriers. I'm not terribly surprised - sadly - that the project for a new gun got canned either. The defence decisions of my country's government often make me wonder how their thought processes work, and how logic can be applied to them.

I have a few friends in the model-making community who are in the Royal Navy. One of them said to me that because we (england) are trying to keep our naval air arm alive until we get the F-35, a lot of our pilots are training and flying with the USN at the moment. The problem with that is, they're building up so much hours and skill with the F/A-18 that the USN is reluctant to give them back because they're so good and they've had so much time invested in them, and the pilots themselves don't want to go back, as they end up behind desks or not keeping their flying current, so it ends up being a career dead-end for them. It's a bit of a miserable situation to find yourself in. 
But that's politics, and we probably want to keep that out of things >.> 

Yes, the job situation is really good news - I recently went from being a temp to going permanent where I work, and it will give me and my partner a lot of job security and general stress relief. We're looking to buy our first home to own instead of rent this year, so it will definitely help there. The fact I also mostly enjoy my job helps too, and that they're really pleased with my performance. Hopefully I can keep that goodwill going.