Lomon and tail chase, I believe you both have very valid arguments and I'm not going to disagree with you.............but, one thing we can all agree on is that money and morale (perhaps not on E3's) is in very short supply within the RAF at the moment and we are being stretched to breaking point. SF fleets, Herc and especially Nimrod fleets are experiencing problems that the E3 wouldn't be able to comprehend at this moment in time. Let's face it the E3's are living the dream compared to the majority of platforms. So ,what annoys us Aircrew, is when money is spent on putting people from outside the aircrew cadre into the air. It costs thousands upon thousands to kit them out,train them and then give them flying pay. And whilst all this extra expenditure takes place aircrew of all trades from Navs to Aeops are sat in meaningless ground trades twiddling their thumbs and getting flying pay! You have to agree that this is pure waste. Frankly, I think that anyone from most trades in the RAF could do the SO job and they could contribute something from their respective pasts wether it be an ATCO, TG12. PMA are not thinking this through as what they need on E3's is not more officers (see Yellow gait's posts) but more operators.
Just think of all the money they could save!
You do the Math!!!!!