Times interview - CAS
4 April 2006
The Times
Public Agenda 5
English
(c) 2006 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
Sir Jock Stirrup has overseen big cutbacks in the RAF, but he tells Michael Evans that the transformation will safeguard the force as the second most powerful in the world
FROM his days as a young fighter pilot to his current post as Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup has seen his service transformed into a significantly smaller but more potent force.
Like his counterparts in the Royal Navy and Army, he has had to oversee cuts in both manpower and equipment to meet the demands for a peace dividend and the Government's strategy for multirole forces, and he admits that enforcing redundancies among his "people" was one of his most difficult jobs.
However, the transformation of the RAF has ensured that his service has remained "the second most powerful air force in the world".
For many years the RAF suffered from the accusation that it needed too many ground crew engineers and mechanics to get one fighter aircraft or bomber into the air. When Sir Jock entered RAF College Cranwell in 1968, the service had 120,000 personnel, a large proportion of whom were ground staff. By 2008, the manpower figure will have come down to 41,000.
"Redundancies generate uncertainty, which is why I have tried to execute the (drawdown) programme as rapidly as possible, but it is still taking three years, and soon we will be announcing the third and final tranche," Sir Jock says.
His three years as Chief of the Air Staff will end on April 28, when he succeeds General Sir Michael Walker as the next Chief of the Defence Staff, the Government's top military adviser.
The cutbacks coincided with an efficiency drive which finally rid the RAF of the numerical imbalance between air crews and ground staff. "One of my priorities was to reduce the cost of logistic support for air operations. We were on the way to bankruptcy," Sir Jock says. By cutting out waste and duplication, an aircraft on average now stays in a hangar for maintenance for two days, compared with 15 in the past. "That guarantees, for example, eight more Harriers for operations than before, and part of the reduction in costs comes from needing fewer uniformed people," he says.
The purchase of sophisticated guided weapon systems in recent years has also transformed the RAF's ability to make a difference on the battlefield. Weapons such as the Brimstone anti-armour missile have given the RAF a technological superiority unmatched even by the United States.
"In the early days of my career it would have taken 21 Jaguar bombers to take out a single Soviet tank. Now one aircraft equipped with Brimstone could take out a dozen tanks," he says.
The entry into service of the Eurofighter Typhoon marks the beginning of a new era in air capability. Sir Jock has flown it, and like all the RAF pilots who have tested it, he enjoyed the experience and believes that the four-nation programme has been a "success story" despite the cost overruns -the bill for the UK if the RAF buys 232 Typhoons is now Pounds 20 billion -long delays in the project and political disagreements between the partners, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The RAF chief is not happy with everything in his service: the most embarrassing problem he has faced was the purchase of eight Chinook Mark 3 helicopters from Boeing for Pounds 259 million which then failed to meet British military flying standards and have been grounded since they arrived. "It's a...situation we've got to put right because we need them now, we don't have enough helicopter lift capability," Sir Jock says.
The procurement contract was signed in 1995. But Sir Jock adds: "I don't think we're going to get the helicopters this year. It will take time."
Michael Evans is Defence Editor of The Times
SIR JOCK STIRRUP
* Born: December 4, 1949.
* Career: Commissioned in 1970, he flew Strikemasters in the Dhofar War, Jaguars in a reconnaissance role, and Phantoms on an exchange to the US. He commanded a Jaguar squadron until 1987, took charge of RAF Marham in 1990 and was appointed Director Air Force Plans and Programmes in 1994. He was Deputy Commander-in Chief Strike Command in 2000 and appointed Chief of the Air Staff in August 2003.
*What he says: "I think I made up my mind to join the RAF when I was nine or ten."
* Little-known fact: He thinks that the RAF of the future will retain a mix of manned and unmanned aircraft.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2006