Gentlemen, whether you like it or not you joined a fighting force. Not a force the "projects it's air power"
Oh, silly me! So we're NOT about projecting air power after all? I look forward to your letter to CAS petitioning him to re-write AP3000, then.
The RAF IS a fighting force - but we do not (and will never) 'fight' the way the army does - we are not trained to do so, nor will we ever be required to. I can guarantee you that NO RAF aircrew will EVER be required to go running around the bondu, digging trenches, and tabbing for miles whilst carrying ridiculous amounts of kit. Yes, we are trained to E&E if the situation requires it - and I can guarantee you that, regardless of how 'lardy' one of us may appear, they will have no difficulty getting out of a burning aircraft and tabbing 2k if the Talitubbies are up our arses - this I know from experience.
The RAF fights by projecting air power, and doing so does NOT require that we are fit enough to get into close-quarter combat with an enemy - if we ever end up in that situation, somebody somewhere has fcuked up. Anybody you see out on ops, regardless of appearances, has passed the fitness test to the level required by OUR service and is, by definition, "FIT FOR PURPOSE". People paid alot more than you and I have deemed this to be sufficient, so who the fcuk are you to tell them (and us) that it's not good enough?
This 'soldier first, specialist second' mentality that pervades the army (and, in all honesty, serves it well) does NOT apply to the RAF. We are SPECIALISTS, pure and simple, try to understand that. We work differently to you, and as such have different requirements of our personnel. Nobody here is saying that it is better to be a lard-arse, just that it is NOT a barrier to service if you are fit enough for purpose (as defined by RAF leadership, NOT army). But then again, the army has never been able to see any viewpoint but it's own - THAT is an indication of severely limited capacity that would bar YOU from servivce as RAF aircrew (different requirements, see?)
Strange, though, how our waistlines don't seem to trouble you if we're coming in, under heavy fire, to pull YOU out of the sh!t.....THAT is what WE do, and we do it well.
The point is this - please, for once, get this into your heads - 'JOINT' does
NOT equal 'ARMY'.