Rigga, cracking post! Short, sweet, and succinct, yet it contains all that has gone wrong with UK Military Airworthiness, why it went wrong, and who is responsible for making it go wrong.
We need to keep our eye on the woods for fear of getting obsessed with the various trees. This tragedy, and every other tragedy featured in UK Military Airworthiness Related Fatal Accident threads on this forum, are all connected by the dysfunctional system that you highlight. RAF VSOs have been the downfall of an Air Safety System that used to be an international leader. Now it simply adds victim after victim to its death list, and hacks away at the very vitals of UK Air Power. The VSOs responsible are protected by a cover up that inhibits reform of both Regulator and Investigator. Whether the RAF is prepared to clean out its own stables is for it to decide. What cannot be allowed to continue is the baleful effect its leadership has on UK Military Air Regulation and Investigation. Both must be removed from its influence and made independent of the MOD and of each other.
This has to be faced up to now and the nettle grasped. Aviation doesn't tolerate a dysfunctional system and tends to be merciless in response. We need to be equally merciless and stop this rot now!