FF
Bashing your head against a wall?
I think the way grope did it in 2002/3 was to pick and choose which bit of the threat matrices they wanted to believe, change the bits they didn't like and ignore the rest. At the same time, they also ignored advice from specialist personnel within the HQ - and those who were being regularly shot at - Nige for example.
However, like I've said before, the RAF didn't have the cash to update the ac, nor could they have done anything very quickly - even if the Brown-of-the-Tight-Fist had given us a blank cheque. But sadly, only those low-level specialist staff officers took the warnings seriously and, for sure,
they felt like they were bashing their head against a brick wall.
So, it is suspected that people like SASO and AOC 2 Gp (and right up the chain) 'risk-managed' the whole op with our lives, while we did the best we could with what little we had. (BTW 'Risk Management' is another word for 'gambling for the sake of promotion'.)
Ok, so we took the Queen's shilling but I don't think Her Majesty would have been too impressed with the apparently cavalier way in which 2 Gp treated her AT crews (and their passengers).
Nonetheless, I could almost forgive their Lordships for 2002/3/4 but, by now, they have had some money, the knowledge and the time to have rectified the parlous state of our AT fleet (including the widebodies). If they haven't done so and then they send these ac to AFG/Iraq/Iran- then, yes, IMHO they
will be negligent. One lives in hope that our hierarchy are smarter than that.
Perhaps those PQs will reveal the extent of the preparedness of our ac?
sad:
