Leaping to the defence of the UAS!!
The UAS organisation is one which can be easily maligned and yet provides the Royal Air Force with far more than can be captured by simple statistics.
The UAS is a fine organisation which has been a consistent recruiting ground for some of the sharpest people from British society. The organisation continues to recruit some of our finest air warriors who have proved their mettle in combat from the earliest days of the RAF and continue to do so today above Afghainstan.
The UAS allows students to gain an insight into the RAF and provides them with an opportunity to join the RAF, a path which they may not otherwise have taken.
I had not really considered the RAF as a realistic option when I went to university in the 1980s - the UAS gave me an insight into the professionalism and the pride in doing a job which really means something in this World where elsewhere values are often reduced to the size of pay packet and the type of mobile phone one uses. The UAS gives people a brief snapshot of what it means to serve their country. It shows them that the ethos of the RAF is still well and truly alive and that we are a real force to be reckoned with because of the traditions we have developed over the years which come from our proud service and continue to come from the proud service members of the RAF put in daily serving the country.
In addition to this, the UAS also has various intangible benefits for the service which statistics will often fail to identify or quantify. Firstly, those members of UASs who enjoy their two years on the squadron continue to feel empathy towards the armed services for the rest of their lives. I have friends who still hark back to their Bulldog time and they now represent serious power around the country in various guises, both in the public and private World. With armed forces shrinking, having members of the public who are able to understand, in some way, what armed forces do is vitally important. Elsewhere on this forum I see people whinge about the lack of credibility and understanding MPs have for the armed services - UASs/OTCs and URNUs are real vehicles for this.
A for those who slate the organisations currently, it should be understood that UAS manning has been axed. That said, and having served relatively recently on a UAS, the standard of training on offer to the students today far exceeds what I received in the mid 80s. The UAS organisation has seriously reconfigured itself to deliver some excellent training both in the aircraft and on the ground.
To all the doubting Thomases, the flying syllabus now is not all that different from what was being delivered on the Bulldog back then - it is in a slightly different guise but spinning, low level, navigation, IF are all there and the kit on the aircraft is certainly better than when I was a student. It does differ from the period when UASs were used as EFTS, but lets face it was it really fair on the students who had heavy work schedules? The 10 hours per student is not really a problem as there is a natural flow of those who are very keen and those who are not so keen......those who are not so keen are often the students who are more focussed on other areas within the UAS and often join the branches which are crying out for people. In fact, in my time I saw a number of extremely high calibre students from excellent universities going into ground branches such as int, admin, eng etc. B under no illusion, we really need brilliant dynamic people to man those branches to ensure success in an organisation which is squeezed and where every person counts. We need people who have been studied closely for 2-3 years rather than gambles on people who drift into recruiting offices and pass a couple of interviews and test!! These kids have seen it and crucially we have had a chance to see them!!
The ground training programme is now quantifiable, checked and deliveres a broad range of training including military knowledge, leadership skills, teamwork, self awareness, drill, adventure training. It is a far cry from the drinking and flying club many on this forum seem to have depicted. I should state, however, that flying still comes very much first and also that socialising (including .....yes beer) is very much a part of the organisation. That said, there is no pressure on anyone to drink if they are non drinkers.....it is simply an normal organisation where some members do and some don't!!!! In fact, compared to the normal student haunts, UASs provide a sensible approach to boozing with people watching out for each other - how many students at uni have a 40 or 50 year old mentor who is approachable and who they can have a beer with who is not heir dad and who is looking out for them? The students on the sqn are really part of something which looks out for them.
Regarding the original article, there will always be some units which do not take thins as seriously as others. That said there will always be some students who do not take every chance offered to them. In my experience, when students wished to fly, the sqn moved heaven and earth to get them airborne - in fact the workload on the QFIs is now far more intense than it was in years gone by. 95% of QFIs take extreme pride in the quality of instruction they offer and in the service they provide to the students. I found the report very poorly researched and I am sure that had the reporter spoken with the RAF that she would have been allowed unlimited access to the hoard of students across the country who are UAS believers as well as the staff of UASs who could have given her a more objective picture of how they achieve their tasks with limited resources and oodles of very hard work.
My final note is that to ensure the success of the armed services in the future, the RAF should be sending its brightest instructors to the UAS World to take command of and inspire these crucial units (even if only for a short tour). They are our investment for tomorrow, they a vital link with the academic communities (so important as we try to intellectualise our force to deal with future threats), they are our link with the leaders of tomorrow and finally they are the only way of recruiting some real brains from our highest academic institutions; as we get smaller we will need to rely on excellence.