RMAN and ARCHIVELOGS

I have a question/thought about RMAN :

Suppose : - Database is in archive log mode and has plenty of space for writing archives
- RMAN has been succesfully run every night for ca 6 months(full dtb backup)
- One day, development decides to do a BIG upgrade on the test schema in the database
- This upgrade makes the database work as hell and it start switching logfiles every minute or so
- Archive directory starts running out of space, even though archives are compressed each hour (cron)
- A smart developer decides to ftp the archive files, created ealier today, over to a PC
- When the moment has come that the nightly backup has to get run, you get a call from development that there is no space on your AIX server to put back the archive files earlier ftp'd to the PC
- what would RMAN think of those archives missing and most importantly : WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO MAKE RMAN HAPPY AGAIN ???

Any experiences or thoughts would be hugely appreciated

THX, Richard