Oh dear gentlemen/ladies,
I fear that you are forgetting a few very important aspects of the officer Corps.
Leadership - I hope that Cranditz, Sandhurst and Dartmouth all still require, expect and develop leadership. As we all know any monkey can fly in CAVOK in peacetime. At war, transition to war, in attrocius weather conditions, in far from ideal environmental conditions, and with no hotel in sight - then this is when the officer earns his money.
A cockpit, a formation a flight will all require leadership.
I am not saying for one moment that the NCO community cannot lead, but officer selection identifies those at an earlier age that have the potential to lead (hence young officers get a platoon, flight or Division).
The NCO's rely on experience to obtain/develop their leadership potential which may take extra time, hence the LE, SD, upper yardy ex-ranker career path.
And I hope that just having A Levels isn't the only quality to become an officer, or being able to read the Times - I hope that the selection process is far more mature and well rounded than that (I for one was on an intake with a Cambridge Grad and a genuine extremely intelligent bloke, but absolutely no common sense or flexible approach to problem solving)
So before it de-generates into an Officer/NCO thing - not worth it. We all know we need the young officers, selected at an early age to lead, and we all know we need the NCOs that bring measured experience and guidance to the young officers. In today's Services there is so much scope for NCOs to hop across onto the officer line (if they have the proven ability) and officers to step off the career line and become the senior mentors in flying suits.
I dares say that when we run out of officers, we will just either employ NCOs or promote them (look at the number of ex-AAC NCOs now holding down important jobs and Staff posts in JHC HQ and key positions in the AAC because it farms all of its Direct Entry officers off to 'career' jobs outside of the flying environment and there are not enough AAC officers to go around.
But the age old question....do we all need to be officers? For example in a formation of 4 aircraft, can the lead and deputy lead be officers, the other 2 NCOs? It seems to have served the Air Corps well, but about the only thing the AAC has got right in its entire short history!
