As a member of one of the RAF's more deployed aircraft types it is becoming more and more apparent that the tail is waging the dog more often than the reverse. This seems to be the case everytime you need something done by the said "backroom boys" who would rather keep hold of informatio and kit than provide the needy with resources they need, on the off chance that "someone else might need it"
How many times have we been to stores or other sections and been told that "you can't have that" or "your not scaled for that" when in all honesty people are asking by the very nature of the fact that they do need it. Never has this been the case more than when deployed. How many people does it take to keep jets flying. From this equation I subtract the aircrew and associated groundcrew/ ops support people without who's help the jets wouldn't get airborne, but as for the rest??? It amazes me that so many other trades are required to put an aircraft in the sky. Is there really a need for it??
More so now than ever before with the impending defence white paper this should be looked into. It appears that not only are bases in jepardy but also frontline sqn's at a time when we are spreading ourselves thiner and thiner to meet increasing demands on our resources. Why then should we lose sqn's and not Remf's??
