Nigegilb:
Yet more evidence, if any were needed, that MoD policy is increasingly based on Pprune posts.
Nigel, what might appear as a throw away line, or mere bravado, is upon reflection one of the most damning comments, of a very great many, made of the MOD and the RAF Higher Command on this Forum. I truly believe that the MOD is in meltdown. Whatever credibility it ever had for long term planning and provision of UK Defence needs now lies in tatters. It has been infected by the hour by hour, never mind day to day, presentation imperatives of its political masters forming the present administration (I cannot bring myself to characterise them as a Government). As Squidlord reminds us they have very serious safety issues to attend to that extend beyond those of Flight Safety. It is, however, the latter that this thread, this forum, must be principally concerned with. Nige says he sees little or no way of the MOD retracing its path back to the days when it would, when it could, properly implement UK Military Airworthiness Regulations. If he is right, and I suspect that he is, then the situation is very grave and prompt and urgent action is necessary. Aviation doesn't conveniently wait for Ministers to become 'mindful', for Senior Officers to become 'somewhat concerned'. It bites you in the arrse and then we'll have yet another thread born that will last a decade or more. Bite the bullet now SoS's, ACM's, Your Honour, and get an independent MAA rolling. It will have the limitations envisaged by Nige, it will confer Grandfather Rights on compromised aircraft, but it will be many orders of magnitude safer than the shambles left for us by the beancounters from over twenty years ago who dared to ask, "what cost benefit is all this Flight Safety really giving us?". I think that their question is now only too tragically answered.