On another (but still AEA related) tack, in the 90s Harrier mates engaged in the Kosovo nastiness were complaining that the issue flying boots were not man enough to cope with the rigours of a cold weather Survival situation.
Fair enough! My job, as I saw it, in the EA was to try and get the boys going over the top, what they needed. Often this meant we used some innovative ways to get stuff authorised without entering the MoD procurement maze and firing the 9lb chicken at it!
Several alternative options were trialled for a nominal 6 months under an authorised Special Trial Fit (STF) for "extreme cold weather boots" The options had varying degrees of success, but one of the variants had a Gortex sock insert permanently stitched inside. I don't know which one (if any) won but.....
The following summer, several months after the trial had finished (and the equipment and authorisation supposedly withdrawn) My AD burst into our office clutching the obligatory Friday afternoon Air Incident Signal. Uttering his usual mantra of "they have a problem, what are you going to do about it" He demanded immediate answers of course as the incident was describing how a Harrier Jock had suffered from continual overheating of the feet and it eventually transpired that his complaint was that his boots were clearly unsuitable for the summer and had subjected him to unnecessary stress during flight. So bad were they that he had cut the insert out.
Oh, how we laughed 😂