Not really thread drift...
One of our clients has a collection of Porsche 911 Supercars. Each of them is a top of the range, in the era it was built.
The 70's car is his favourite, the 90's is the best looking, and the new one... he dismisses as "That's really just an Audi." when he talks about it. He tells me that the rest of the Porsche drivers in his club feel the same about them.
I wonder if the same can be said of the Pilots being produced by/for the RAF today.
In five years time, will the RAF still be the chosen supplier of aircrew for the rest of the worlds expanding air forces? Will it have become obvious to those who buy/rent such talent, that the foundations were weakened and the output, competent or not, is based on sand by comparison to how it was?
Older and very experienced Saudi pilots might see that the standard of guys arriving to teach their sons at Tabuk, are not of the same experience as they guys who did that job 20 or 30 years earlier.
I'm sure we all understand Bob's desire to keep quiet and smile; that's how you get paid. We also understand that the blame, and the solution, are on the desks of people in London.
Keeping quiet is not really helping anyone except Bob, and of course the folk cashing the cheques.