I understand that these measures are a result of the 'National Recognition Study'. Dare I ask if anyone knows who commissioned this study and - dare I ask - how much it cost?
Did they cover enemy aircraft, ships and weapon systems too?
These new uniform directives are supposedly to "support a stronger profile for the RAF"...... Why do we need a stronger profile? Do we have competitors who also provide 'Air Power'?
Has our profile diminished in recent years? Is it, by any chance, proportional to the reduction in size of the RAF? (Not to mention that the RAF is now pound for pound stretched far more thinly than I can ever remember.)
Do we need a stronger profile because there is a recruiting problem? Will seeing people driving to work in blues have much effect on this? I personally think not. When I was young, the sort of things that made me want to join up were- seeing RAF aircraft tearing through valleys at low level, - or me going to one of the many station airshows/open days that would happen each year. Obviously there are far fewer bases and far fewer aircraft and what we have has been leaned to the bone - making profile raising events impracticable. As for low flying aircraft - they do tend to be noisy and might upset a voter!
Wouldn't it be better to raise our profile by using the media with a few more fly on the wall documentary type programmes? Or would that make the public realise that things are not perhaps as they should be - putting the airships and the government in a bad light?
- Perhaps we should just distribute lots of smiling cardboard cut-out RAF personnel around the country to make the public think about us more often! ......Sigh!...
