As ever the Chiefs of Staff are out of kilter on this and completely failing to grasp the real problem. For the record, military operational parachuting has taken place in very recent operations and there continues to be a real need for this skill in future operations. To remove the ability of paras to qualify in this discipline will harm recruitment of personnel wishing to become part of the regiment and also part of UK special forces.
Even worse for the wider UK Armed Forces we are witnessing a meltdown in personnel. The PVRs winging their way in at the moment will not bite for another 12 to 18 months. Chiefs of Staff are fooling themselves if they seek to ignore this fact. The Parachute Regiment has just been honoured with awards for incredible gallantry, what on earth do they think this will do to morale? Why risk the hit to retention? Typhoon is a white elephant in all this, by retaining Typhoon one almost gets the impression RAF Chiefs have been bought off. Well Sirs, the unpalatable fact is that for the last 10 years, with the odd exception Ops have been carried out by less fashionable sections of the RAF. Saving Typhoon will not save the RAF, just as acquiring a replacement for Trident will not save the military. Your people are your greatest asset and they are walking away in disgust and who can blame them for the shoddy way they have been treated.
Last edited by nigegilb; 17th Dec 2006 at 15:43.