First of all I am not 'having a go' at anybody! There is much talk on this thread of people leaving en mass, redundancy over subscribed, PVR applications going through the roof, etc. Now I have been in the RAF for more years than I care to remember, and have heard such talk on numerous occasions before. Usually it fails to materialise, a fact I think our lords and masters bank on. Yes, I know FRI for aircrew was bought in to improve a retention problem, but that was against a gradual decline in numbers over a period of time, as opposed to large losses in the short term.
Are we actually going to see a large outflow, either through redundancy or PVR, in the next 18 months? Alternatively will people stay in through a combination of circumstances (e.g kids at boarding school as mentioned) but be even more disillusioned than before? Or will the numbers of leavers just increase over the medium term?