Just my two-penneths worth......
Perhaps if we in the RAF had less people employed at MOD, STC, PTC, JHC, PJHQ, DLO etc. and more personnel actually carrying out the operations we are supposed to, then the other services and the rest of the general public may look apon us in a better light....
When we can't fill the frontline cockpits with aircrew can we really justify the 120+ aircrew Sqn Ldrs at Innsworth alone in desk jobs. Also when we can't get the kit for the frontline, why is MOD being gutted and refurbished at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds....
One has to wonder how far we as the military (and I include all the services in this) have progressed when HQ British Forces Cyprus has more staff Officers' now (to support 2 battalions of infantry, 8 helicopters and an admittedly busy airfield), than there were on the island when it was the HQ of the Near East Air Force and responsible for numerous front line jet Sqns and the whole of the Near East theatre (which numbered thousands of RAF personnel alone!).
The RAF is not alone in having this problem, but the solution is not in disbanding one of the services. Only in truthfully addressing the issue of what we want to be able to achieve as a nation with our armed forces, and then addressing what kit it will need to achieve it, manning them in an appropriate fashion and training properly for the task, along with making the structure front line oriented, not command oriented will we ever succeed. I despair of this ever happening under our present leadership (both political and military), as all are far too interested in feathering their own nest career wise.....
I'm afraid we have no statesmen or leaders in our nationany more, only people who crave power and are promoted above the level of their own incompetence.....
RANT OVER!
