Thankfully this post is anonymous (ish) and I cannot be identified as I would deny I said this to any RAF Regt types
The RAFR may seem like a waste of time, money & resources, however they do provide 3 niche capabilities that the Army are just not in the same league.
JTACs - having worked with literally hundreds over the last 15 yrs or so from various nations and cap badges, nobody is as professional or competent as the RAFR. This includes SF JTACs and USAF TACPs. Nobody comes close!
CBRN - As with JTACs the world leaders in CBRN are the boys from Honington. The Army just dont get it and I believe dont even train their personnel outside of Phase 1 training with any regularity.
Air aware - The Army
do not understand Air or aviation in any meaningful capacity or even how important it is to Land. A case in point. Whilst in Kenya on exercise we ended up very narrowly missing a DH3 UAV as the artillery ‘experts’ decided that as they had gun lines (inactive for a week) and they operated them that they owned the airspace over the entire area.
This was despite us flying down the air corridor separating 2 ranges. The exact reply from the battery commander “we own the air, you arent allowed in to the range when guns are present”. When asked where in the range documents this was written down, he asked what range documents?
The Army have absolutely no concept of aviation or why it matters to them on the ground.... This attitude has stood true in my entire military career.
The RAFR are (and I hate to admit this) an essential capability for Air as they just ‘get it’ when it comes to aviation.