Quote:
Originally Posted by melmothtw View Post
Fair enough, but if the RAF can transfer its entire Merlin force over to the RN then I can't see why it should be so difficult to do the same for the Chinook force and the army.
If it IS a deal breaker for the personnel, then you just retain the current air/ground crews under their current conditions (wearing blue uniforms but under a green command structure), and then when they naturally waste out of the force you replace them with army folk who I am sure would love the opportunity to operate the Chinook.
Not that difficult really.
It didn't transfer the "entire force" - it transferred the aircraft. In the mean time, CHF transitioned from SK4 to Merlin3/4. There were no wholesale transfers of personnel to accompany the airframes.
So all future Merlin crews will be sourced from the RAF? If not, then you've just repeated by argument - transfer the aircraft first with the crews retaining their current status, and then over time the crews will follow as older RAF pilots/ground staff are replaced with newer army ones.