"Without flying the main attraction to joining a UAS goes"
I would say, without flying the ONLY attraction to joining a UAS goes.
"Slight difference there, the URNU is not a training organisation per se, rather it exists to provide experience of the Navy to quote "future captains of industry". If you decide to join the RN afterwards then thats all well and good, but there is no pressure to do so."
Delete 'URNU', 'Navy' and 'RN' and insert 'UAS', 'Air Force' and 'RAF' and you could be describing what the UASs were all about until the idiots ruined them with the lunacy of pre-BFT streaming recommendation based upon UAS performance.
And don't anyone kid themselves that the RAF wants 'younger' people than UAS graduates because they're easier to teach and generally fitter - it's purely so that the beancounters can squeeze another 3 years 'productive' service out of them before their 38 point or whatever it is these days. Pure and simple.
I wonder whether the MoD-box beancounters have woken up to the current moves in ba's recruiting..... Once that ramps up even more (as it surely will), they'll be back to competing with the airlines for those few people who seem to want a flying career these days. No UAS APOs flying their ar$es off when not working for their degrees, no bursaries (worth less than a few months of supermarket shelf stacking to most students) = no interest except for the RHS of an A320.
And we'll all chorus "WE TOLD YOU SO!"
But it'll be too late then. Tough!