I fully agree with employing SNCO's as NCA, be it on rotary or fixed wing.
Its complete madness to go down the JNCO route, I am not agreeing with the policy but just stating the current rumours. No smoke without fire.
However does a 3rd or 4th wet aeop need to be a SNCO ? Having never served on the mighty sardine hunter I have only limited knowledge of their supervisory duties. I can understand why a fixed or rotary wing ALM needs to be SNCO due to his/her supervisory role. Technically there is little difference between the 3 branches on modern aircraft and to my mind we all have responsibilities befitting the SNCO status. However do the powers that be see it that way ? Certainly if the current rumours prove to be correct then the WSOp branch as whole is not particularly highly valued. How they can justify paying a stacker or mover more than an WSOp/ALM is beyond me. That's not to say that I don't appreciate the work that those branches do but doe they deserve to be on a higher pay band ? Perhaps it all boils down to who or rather what rank is presenting the individual trade.
On the subject of NCO pilots, its not that long ago that pilots in the RAF were SNCO's. However whilst there is little justification for all pilots to hold a commission could you really see the powers that be agreeing to a lowering in their rank structure ? I think not.
What you need to realise is that the air force is run by officers for officers, if money can be saved from the other ranks then it will be. We are only here to do the jobs that they don't want, fact of life unfortunately. How on earth do they justify having approx 1/4 of the air force being made up by officers. Have a look around your squadron and ask yourself, does that position really require and officer to the job ? If you are honest the answerer is probably no, but we have now passed the point of no return regarding man power distribution and sensibility.
Rant over.