What a load of .......
I have read / followed PPrune for years, and from time to time it makes me laugh. I have never felt any urge to post or register, just enjoy a bit of occasional banter or jokes. Today that changed however...
As military aircrew it's pretty upsetting when people voice strong opinions on something they know absolutely NOTHING about! I should laugh at these idiots, but the news that the F3 is to be aggressively reduced is no joke.
Firstly - lets deal with the misconceptions. ANY genuine fast air aircrew will tell you that the F3 is not just a competent AD platform but that it is still very relevant and capable. Consider the 'stats' of multinational exercises like TLP and you will find that the F3 is only slightly bettered by the F15 (that includes f18 and f16 MLU's). If you don't believe that, then speak to any of the F22 pilots who have worked with the Leuchars Crews on the last Red Flag Ex in Feb 09. The F3 performed exceptionally. F3 has JTIDS, ASRAAM, AMRAAM etc - is NOT redundant.
Secondly - bare in mind that there are hundreds of engineers who work hard 24 7 365 to provide a QRA service at Leuchars. They do the job quietly, without fuss and to a high standard. Not only will the news that came last week cause a huge amount of stress for the support personnel at Leuchars, but their families will also be very stressed about the difficult times ahead.
In summary, everyone has opinions, and that's fantastic. But please consider what you are writing before you post. Ignorance and stupidity may be bliss for you - but it can, and does, upset those of us that work hard to provide a service to HMG.
In particular I am posting in reference to : xray1, pp and navaleye.