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Old 28th Aug 2011, 12:12
  #3055 (permalink)  
FB11
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Capt P U G Wash

Thank you for answering my non-allegation. It was a statement of fact. Question asked and the answer was no (but we are now all the more wise for the heart aching demise of the RN and RAF fast jet fleet cockpit seats.)

Defence withdrew Harrier from service and committed the RN and RAF to flying F-35B and then the F-35C to flying in a joint force. It didn't suggest that the RN walk away from flying until the young officers fresh from their GCSE results walked into flying training to become the first operational JCA pilots on the lowest rung.

Defence has a requirement to keep the correct minimum sustainable numbers of RN pilots in cockpits when they removed the only UK based jet they flew.

Unless you are suggesting that the RAF would populate the CO, XO, 2xFC, QWI, QFI and the RN would have a handful of JOs that might make Flight Commander status by 2030? Not very joint.

And the first 2 aircrew for the F-35 Test and Evaluation Squadron start next year with a steady requirement increasing until the operational squadron is formed. The more senior aircrew the RN has going through the US system will (happily for the UK) be in a much better place to get the best from UK OT&E of F-35C than, for example, a pilot flying a land based jet with half the number of flying hours in the same period and no embarked experience. Working alongside other RAF pilots who have completed exchanges on unique aircraft, we might just do a half decent operational test.

Nothing contentious in that, just a statement of fact.

As lj101 correctly identifies, the RN is sending ab-initio pilots (not quite fresh fresh from their GCSE results but not far) to become the QWIs and flight commanders of the 2020's and the commanding officers of the late 2020's. They are sending more experienced aircrew from first tourists through to aircrew who are therefore able to compete for posts at SO3 through to SO1 from now onwards. As you'd expect from a joint force.

As for RN fast jet pilots not competing above OF5? As though, if that were the case, it were somehow a 'waste' of a slot? The RAF fixation for the fast jet pilot being at the top of the organisation must be mildly amusing for the C-130 pilot Chief of the USAF. And I assume that if the 'vast majority of JCA pilots' have got A* in their GCSE, the A400M; CH-47; C-17 pilots etc are scraping through with a handful of B and C grades?

It's like reading a letter from Torpy.

Also, your sums are flawed: there would be no additional Typhoon flying generated (an RN pilot would merely have supplanted an RAF one), so any one-way exchanges in the US are costing Defence additional money - nice try though!
I don't understand your point. I know there would be no extra Typhoon flying generated; the Typhoon can't generate enough flying hours anyway - it's a blessing in disguise that UK pilots (think about that one for a minute) can get up to a 1000 hours of true multi-role in the same time a Typhoon pilot struggles to get 500 at best. All for the cost of 25 hours of Typhoon flying.

The brokers of that deal should get their 25 quid Herbett Lott award from HMT.

You don’t hear the RAF talking about F35A and no Carriers
Yes, you do.

but if some continue to peddle the Super Hornet agenda you will….
And we'll all be screwed if it happens.

Retired and passionate lobbyists versus serving senior ranked officers lobbying against endorsed policy.

There is a difference and the politicians know it.

But....yeahhhhh! Let's cut our nose off to spite our face and we'll face another generational equivalent of flying Jaguars, F3s and GR1s while everyone else flies F-15s, F-16s and F-18s.

Last edited by FB11; 28th Aug 2011 at 12:18. Reason: grammar
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