Freedom of Speech - Where's My Place?
Cor! - That PPrune Pop bloke doesn't half get the hump easily doesn't he.... I thought the whole idea of these forums was for frank (unfettered) exchanges of views. If the "Fighter Controllers -Know Your Place" thread was that bad it would have surely died a natural death much earlier wouldn't it?
Anyway, back to the issue. In my view (as a current customer), the E-3D is the best provider of its particular ISTAR product by a country mile (work with the A/C or F versions of the platform and you'll soon see what I mean). Such success is due, entirely, to the competence and professionalism of mission crews (including FC brevet holders) who draw on 15 or so years of operational experience. That these mission crews are comprised of various Aircrew and Ground specialists is, however, beside the point.
After 15 years, the FC portion of the E-3D fraternity d@mn well ought to be good at the job - but are we really supposed to believe that the E-3D would be any less capable if it had been crewed solely by aircrew from word go? - Let's get real...... The fundamental issue then, is whether FCs / ASOps should have ever been employed in such numbers on the platform in the first place. This is particularly topical, given the projected availability of AD-savvy former F-3 WSOs as that fleet declines. The writing already seems to be on the wall, with (formerly FC-annotated) Flt Cdr posts on both Sentry sqns now open only to aircrew branches. The aircrew "protectionism" mentioned by tablet_eraser earlier is further evidence of this. In short, the Service is now filling E-3D mission seats with the aircrew specialists who should have been there in the first place, now that they are becoming available.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that FCs should no longer populate the E-3D team, - just that the majority of (non-technician) mission seats should be allocated to aircrew. While Icecap's initial lure about "brevet borrowing" was just a bit of fishing; he did raise some valid points:
FC/AT brevets are the only flying badges currently awarded without any pre-cursor aircrew specialist trg (or for that matter aircrew aptitude testing) - as such, this diminishes their worth in the eyes of many on both sides of the debate. Surely it would be beneficial for all potential FC/AT brevet candidates to undergo aptitude testing, followed by successful completion of the Aircrew Specialist Course / CASC etc before proceeding to the Sentry OCU.
The preponderance of the FC branch across ITW / OES has nothing to do with experience in NEC (E-3D definitely does not lead that area in Lincs let alone the UK) - but is, rather, a reflection of how Sentr-ist (geddit?) Waddo has been until recently - (it took 3 years to get the name of the stn mag changed from Sentry for Cr@st's sake!.....).
The bottom line is that FCs do not "borrow" their brevets, they earn them (after a fashion) - what they have been doing for the past decade and a half though, is "borrowing" the seats that they'll shortly have to return to their rightful owners....
Hopefully, this post will be assessed by those with the power for what it is intended to be - a contribution to the debate. For the first time ever however, I'm not sure whether it'll see the light of day. And that, my friends, would be a shame...........