Originally Posted by
alfred_the_great
And yet again, the question that must be asked: if the military air regulator and military air accident investigators are to be independent of one another and the MoD, where do they get their SQEP staff from, and to whom are they responsible?
Well, it isn't going to be easy that's clear, but it is also clear that the loss of UK Military Airworthiness is increasingly having a dire effect on UK Air Power and hence national security. This scandal has lost us entire capabilities, viz Maritime Reconnaissance (only just beginning its faltering steps to be regained), ACO Gliding (a vital source for recruitment, but a mere shadow of its former self), and a large part of the FJ training fleet in the form of the Hawk T1 with its reserve attack capabilities. It has cost some 100 lives and much treasure. It will go on eating away at UK Military Aviation until the MOD/RAF bites the bullet, mans up to what has got us into this mess, and has Air Regulation and Accident Investigation removed from its control.
So what is to be done to get us back to objective air accident investigation and to enforcing the Airworthiness Regulations, which is the key to providing for airworthiness and then maintaining it from start to finish of an aircraft's or system's life? It will hardly come as a surprise if I say that Investigator and Regulator must be outwith the MOD, independent of it and of each other. As tuc points out, a lot of deadwood needs to be cleared out. Both authorities would be headed up by civilian DG's to which their staffs, both military and civilian, would be answerable. Both disciplines follow very complex and arcane procedures and perhaps a weakness in the present system is that Service personnel come and go in short order with scarcely time to get up to speed before they are off to follow another element of their military careers. It may well be that the SQEPs need to be more permanent, and new branches established to provide a core of professional regulators and investigators. Perhaps a mix of them with others with more recent operating and line engineering experience would work. This will all be new and very challenging. A lot will depend upon the willingness and dedication of those involved, for make no mistake the very survival of UK Military Air Power is at stake. The outcome for Air Forces that go to war against others, while riddled with a lack of airworthiness, does not bode well.