Hi!
I'm a Civvie Airline Captain with no Military Aviation experience whatsoever, however, that doesn't preclude me from spotting flaws & weaknesses in the current state of the Armed Forces.
I have big,big issues with centralizing the whole of a particular type of aircraft on one site & I'll cite an example & a couple of scenarios.
February 2009, I was based at Brize, working for FlyGlobespan operating the UK-ASI-Mount Pleasant AirBridge & UK-Gulf flights via Hannover, Paderborn, Teeside & Akro'. For a period of about a week we had atrocious weather conditions of ice, snow, freezing rain & the daytime temperature was seldom above -2c, very similar to the 'Cold Snaps' we had recently. The apron, taxyways & runway at Brize could not be cleared of snow & ice due to the lack of staff to operate the equipment who couldn't get into the base & when it did operate, it frequently broke down. RAF Brize Norton was SNOCLO for quite a while.
Inbound transport flights were diverted to Manchester, Brum, East Mids' et al. Now that's fine, if inconvenient, to stick service personnel on coaches & freight or equipment can be moved on trucks to the Air Head or wherever it needs to go. Unfortunately, one particular night the Russians were a roamin'.
Aircraft scrambled from a base in Scotland & a tanker on QRA tried to launch but couldn't due to the condition of the runway at Brize. We were sat on the flight deck of our B767 listening to the conversations between the hapless team in the Control Tower & the frustrated crew who wanted to get airborne. This went on for over an hour, apparently more aircraft were launched from Scotland & some in Eastern England were put on alert as the original interceptors ran low on fuel. We got our pax, closed the doors, taxied &, prior to take off, were asked for a runway condition report. As we turned onto runway 26, I could feel the aircraft slipping slightly, & noted the 'shiny surface' of the runway & the OAT hovering around 0'c. We launched & gave the Tower a report along the lines of "...runway surface WET, runway entry point SLIPPERY... estimated braking action MEDIUM" as there was no visible contamination. When I got back to Brize a few days later I found out the QRA mission had been scrubbed, which to a tax payer in times when the Russians were having a few probes, was not very reassuring. On the way to the hotel, I really felt for the teams hundreds of miles North of Scotland & their thoughts on that dark wintery night, upon being told that their tanker wasn't coming. It's just not good enough.
If the RAF has an obligation to to defend our airspace with teams on QRA then why don't they put the assets needed together? Put a couple of tankers at a frontline QRA station IF the weather looks as though it could hamper ops, or the Russians start upping their activity? During the Bosnian War, Bruggen was full of damn tankers on a 'forward det'. Why not have a QRA det? If this isn't possible, why not put a couple of Tornados with Buddy-Buddy fits as a back-up or emergency measure?
Here's a scenario. So the RAF puts all it's Chinooks in one 'Superbase'. Well what a target that would be for bunch of terrorists, to seriously damage the bulk of the Heavy HeloLift capability that could be used in a current theatre. What would it take? 4? 6? 8? nutters in a couple of trucks? A couple of pairs of bolt cutters to take 30 secs to cut a big hole in a fence. They can drive on through & be on the flightline wreaking havoc with petrol bombs, lump hammers, sledge hammers, crow bars within a couple of minutes doing untold damage with no weapon or mass-fertilizer purchases to flag up with the Security Services, no death to innocent civilians to harm their cause but a blow to the already hard pressed UK Armed Forces & a massive propaganda coup. On a Pacific Island in December 1941, a base commander decided to park all the aircraft on his base slap in the middle of the airfield for fear of saboteurs sneaking through the perimeter fence. His pilots protested, offering that it left them vulnerable to an air raid. Come lunchtime on December 7th over 60 USAAC aircraft were left ablaze after an attack by 8 Japanese dive bombers. I'm merely saying 'Eggs in a basket'.
How about
:
Making SAR tri-service.
Operating the Nimrods jointly with the Navy (same as the Joint Harrier Force & Helicopter/Fast Jet training system)
Letting the Army have the RAF's helicopters.
Putting QRA assets (inc. tanker & Awacs) having 'detached flights' e.g. to Leuchars & Conningsby. 22 (SAR) Sqn used to be based at RAF Finningley where all the maintenance, training & admin' was carried out, but operated a network of 'det flts'. Why not operate Awacs, MPA, Tactical Airlift & Tanker assets on a similar set-up?
Co-Locating SF air assets together with the land based units they carry into battle.
Close Scampton & put the Reds into Valley.
Close LOO & Cranfield's runways & put the Dom's & Tuc's into somewhere like Mona & Woodvale where they are relatively close to each other & where they train i.e. the LFA's in North Wales & Lake District & the uncluttered airspace of the west coast. It would save flying time transiting from airfields in the East of the country to their training areas in the West & back again.
Base UAS & EFT units at sections of more provincial civilian operated airports.
Have a select list of established UK owned, based & crewed airlines to operate to places such as Ascension, Nairobi, Mount Pleasant, Calgary, Hannover, Belize, Dulles/Andrews AFB, Patrick AFB, Akrotiri & wherever the UK's Gulf AirHead is. Frequent rotation of tenders among UK airlines will ensure competitive quotes while ensuring British jobs & post-service job prospects for ex-service personnel. At the minute we have the UK-FI AirBridge operated by Seychellians who've just replaced Polynesians who replaced British workers made redundant!!!!
Just the ideas of someone on the outside looking in.
INCOMING!!!!!!
