Engines, Tucumseh, many thanks to you both for seeking to address my somewhat impertinent post. It was a sincere attempt to get beyond the Inter-Service ballyhoo and drill down to how and why UK Military Air Safety has got into such a mess and what is to be done about it.
Engines, you say that,
The RAF was (quite understandably) seen as the lead service on all things to do with aircraft..... The RN got on with what it had been given as best it could, but there was little it could do once the RAF had effectively taken control of the MoD’s logistics support systems, I guess in the 1980s....
Well, did the RN ever try? I don't find it understandable at all. The FAA was deprived of spares support from the very get go, so what did the RN High Command say or do?
The single phrase that sums up this developing scandal is that, "Evil happens when good men do nothing". If the RN High Command thought it could accommodate RAF control of its aircraft support systems it was rudely awakened on 22nd March 2003. It now shares deck space with Army and RAF aviation, fixed wing and rotary. A bring your own unairworthiness invite? No man is an island, even less so the 21stC UK Military Services. So why hasn't the RN leadership challenged that of the RAF and demanded meaningful reform of UK Military Air Safety? Even now would be better late than never. You tell us that taking on the RAF is a losers game. My answer would be that not doing so is much much worse!
I notice that you assiduously addressed my questions (for which much thanks) but avoided the very one alluded to above. Did FAA Engineers pass their concerns to the very top and what if anything did the RN High Command do to address them? I wouldn't expect SO's to do anything other than their professional very best, and it is clear that you and tuc did just that by the anecdotes you have posted here and elsewhere. BZs to you both. But what about your leadership? While you were doing your very best what were they doing? We have a very clear idea about what the RAF's leadership was doing, and it is not good. So what of the Senior Service? Without airworthy Naval Air Power the Royal Navy is as bereft as is the Royal Air Force, and its very survival is just as threatened. Why hasn't it cried out for reform?
Tuc, your story is well known to the PPRuNe readership and suffice it to say you are respected and revered for the stand you have taken on behalf of
all UK Military Aviators. On behalf of them all, thank you! To coin a phrase, Air Safety Concerns Us All, and as aviators we should all strive to ensure and safeguard it. You are steadfast, along with Engines, in the superiority of the FAA system of Air Safety and in particular of the precedence of Engineers in providing for it. In the event though the RAF bulldozed through such excellence and it provided you no protection from the RAF VSO clique that set out on its monstrous mission to tear down all that you had dedicated yourself to. However, you say that you never received an illegal order from a RN officer, yet instance one who supported an illegal order given you by a Snr CS! You'll forgive me I hope if I call that splitting hairs. The RAF VSOs that continue the cover up of the illegal acts of their predecessors share the same guilt to my mind.
You both decry the blatant attacks on RAF Engineers, and their replacement with those without engineering skills and expertise, in the RAF take over of UK Military Aviation support, and yet this was done under the auspices of the RAF's own Chief Engineer! I can but add Amen to that. As far as I can see it is now only the RN that can lead the fight back to reform and restore UK Military Airworthiness, by calling for an Independent Military Air Regulator and Air Accident Investigator, of the MOD and of each other. Unless and until that happens the outlook for UK Military Aviation, whether based on sea or land, is poor if we are ever confronted by another Air Power.