Ex Rigger
What you say is indeed very true, my concern would be who will be employed to do the same work when there is no ready supply of vastly experienced and highly trained ex RAF available in 5 years time? Some these guys may be a little spanner rusty, but I have found that they love the chance to do a full shift of spannering rather than being constantly diverted by 6000s, sorting guard duties/parades/CO's inspections etc etc.
Red Line
Hit the nail on the head - we had no choice. Like it or not things had to change.
Ref ac deliverly from Sched Maint times - when did they ever come out 'on time'? The one problem that cannot be forecast - hence managed effectively - with an ageing fleet, is emergent work. V v difficult to deal with on a tight turnround time.