PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Air Forces Monthly: Is the Tornado Up to it?
Old 22nd Nov 2008, 20:25
  #35 (permalink)  
Wrathmonk
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: UK
Posts: 1,371
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Tourist

Can't fault your first line!

Getting rid of FW FAA would not be good for either Service and those kind of politics will result in everyone losing out. End of the day who cares what colour cloth the pilots wear as long as it is the best pilots suitable filling those cockpits - being selected, or only available, for Harrier because you are Dark Blue is wrong. Similarly, Typhoon and Tornado only being available to light blue is also wrong - how many gapped cockpits are there? Howabout each Valley course being judged on the overall merits of the students - if the best available for Harrier (or JCA) happen to be all dark blue or all light blue or a mix of differing amounts so what! If a dark blue student is not making the grade for Harrier/JCA but is good enough to graduate onto another (RAF) platform then let him. No different from exchange officers (and far better than exchange officers from non-swimming nations!).

However, still believe that pulling the Harriers out will allow people to see the utility of carrier borne aviation and will hopefully protect both the QEII and PoW (and JCA) from the ravages of the current planning round. The more time Harrier spends on land based ops the more potential there is (for less informed individuals) to assume carrier aviation is no longer required.
Wrathmonk is offline