Originally Posted by
Sky Sports
I attended a talk at the start of the year from an RAF Officer engaged in cyber security. He said there was no way we could keep pace with the likes of China who had thousands and thousands of people working in cyber warfare. All we could do was match their quantity with quality. To do this, the service needed to attract the next generation of Alan Turings, who might not necessarily be all that bothered about shooting a gun / having short hair / going on exercise / and wearing a uniform. He hinted at a new sort of contract and 'service experience' for these individuals, whereby they would be in the RAF, but able to carry on like civvies! The comparison was made with the police who have uniformed and non-uniformed officers.
I'd say the comparison with CID or whoever, is misleading. Detectives they may be, but I understand the origin of the plain clothes tec is to avoid drawing attention when out on the street, especially so with the Flying Squad. We've all seen the Sweeney and the Professionals, now oft repeated on ITV4. These folk aren't one foot in one out, they're fully fledged cops and intelligence operatives in the field, they still wear the uniform when the occasion calls, and hair neatly trimmed as well.
FB