Mr C Hinecap,
I have actually done the rounds thanks, whilst now happily ensconced in the IT industry I began my career flying some forgotten old bit of kit called an FGR2 at a now closed base not far from the Dutch border.
From there, via Learning Command, into the world of law, commercial aspects of military out sourcing and Logistics support came my way sort of accidentally and now in the world of networking.
Most of what you say I agree with, there will always be a percentage of RAF supplied equipment, I just think from the tax payers point of view that should be the absolute minumum.
The forces are not the only people playing the 25/7 365 day a year game, the major UK retailers have been at this for a while and are the best on the planet at it.
Follow me through,
If it works for 4 it will work for 400.
Genuine innovation is called for in support of military operations, the front line must always be uniformed but it doesen't all need to be regular, the support infrastructure at homeplate should ALL be contracted. Spares moved forward in support of surge flying can be treated just as spares fitted to the aircraft, RAF owned and an RAF responsibility until no longer required.
This can be done, I just doubt the currrent senior 'movers and fixers' have the knowledge or the balls.
The concerns expressed about management of risk and penalties for default are all valid, but these can all be managed and concerns allayed.
Anyway, you'd all better become accustomed to it because that is the way of the future, JSF, Eurofighter, MRA4, A400M will all go down this route.
It CAN be made to work to the advantage of the user, the RAF frontline. It will just require major changes in the support world and in RAF engineering practices. These are all changing slowly, the whole thing just needs picking up and shaking out radically.