Bigley,
I am more than aware of the policies (or lack of therein) surrounding the formation of the Flt Ops Branch and the subsequent actions to address the various issues that continue to plague it.
Clearly every SNCO worth his weight, irrespective of trade, will look down his nose at all commissioned officers and view them as worthless until proved otherwise; as an ALM you should know this. That is the lot of the professional SNCO and long may it continue. However where Flt Ops is concerned, it is not a case of the SNCO cadre thinking they are better qualified and experienced, they know and are, FACT!
Without exception, all Flt Ops Officers I have encountered since the inception of the branch have proved to be professionally inept, however this is not a fault in the individual but the system, the training is insufficient and mainly irrelevent and the instructors are clueless. It beggars belief that a training course that is slated for 14 weeks has only nine and a half weeks of instruction, the rest is made up of 'Visits' to pad out what is in effect a poorly designed course. The assistants training, by comparison is eight weeks! As you have quite correctly pointed out this is now being addressed, but in my opinion this is too late, the reputation of the branch is poor and thus with it the credibility of it's people. With all the waifs and strays that found themselves in the branch it is not without good reason that FOTS is referred to as 'Failed other training systems'.