It may very well be now! It's 18 months since I eased springs in that arena but at that time it HAD to be someone who could run the trail, stream the hoses, work out how to get from A to A and so on. Of course this meant that you would need skills akin to the trail co-ord and give briefings to officers, who wouldn't take very kindly to listening to a SNCO, so it would have to be an officer and...BTW, there just happens to be a forecast surplus of ?????
When I suggested that the aircraft would be AOG for the lack of its promised future proof automated guidance system or that the hoses were a simple switch to "Hose out... fuel flows...Hose in!" it was greeted with an awful lot of derision.
Fortunately the Nav who took over at 2 Grapes had a more pragmatic viewpoint than his predecessor and agreed that it was slightly over-egging the pudding.
For goodness sake, the FSTA FD is ergonomically designed to be operated by two pilots and if you need a third hand on deck then increase the establishment to use another pilot, or if its not too bothersome , "Loadie!....Stream the hoses while we nosh on the sandwiches!" Why would you train a parasympathetic FD lurker who has no skills anywhere else?
