Quote:
"An article in the Sunday Times claims that the RAF is trying to take over the Royal Navy's Historic Fleet Air Arm and assume control of all Army helicopters in a cut of more than £1bn from the Defence Budget. This is nonsense.
The article further suggests that Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, is attempting to push through proposals to scrap the 75 Harrier jump jets currently shared between the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force and that First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band is threatening to resign as a result. As we have previously reported in this blog, the views of the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy and the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band were misrepresented and comments attributed to them were without foundation.
To clarify once again, there are no RAF plans to take over the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, nor is there any RAF campaign under the slogan "one nation, one air force". As for the comments on helicopters, there is already a single Joint Helicopter Command, which involves all three Services. There are no plans to put all helicopters under a single Service."
Amazing the MOD is spinning itself out of control! Talk to any MoD officer on a train or anyone from Air Command on a Wednesday sports afternoon and you will soon find the above is total spin.
Spot on Bismark. It is unbelievable what they will actually say without a touch of embarassment. When the original article went up on the internet they actually claimed I had given them no chance to refute this - as if they could. I had actually spoken to three separate press officers on it and been told: Look no-one's going to speak about this. The denial of the "one nation, one air force" slogan is absolutely astonishing given how well established it now is, and if JHC is all there is, why on earth are they creating Defence Helicopter Command? Although I suppose it could be because "joint" now seems to be just about the dirtiest word you can use in some quarters.