RAF Manpower Cuts
Grabbers asked where the cut of 5000 personnel would come from. A combination of cancellation of Nimrod MRA4, Kinloss not required as an RAF base, disbandment of the Harrier force, Cottesmore not required as an RAF base, ASTOR to be retired when no longer required in Afghanistan (2015 ? if you believe that) and presumably efficiencies in ATAR manning as new aircraft types phase in will all effect the total force numbers required. As always, manning will be controlled though a combination of adjusting retention and recruiting, and probably offers of redundancy.
The RAF has coped with much more draconian cuts before and will rise to the challenge again, although clearly the years ahead will be both difficult and disappointing to some. I once met a former Canberra sqn cdr in the 1980s who recounted how 150 of his fellow aircrew sqn ldrs discovered that their services were no longer required in their current role via a list of names posted on the Officers' Mess notice board ! Clearly many thousands more aircrew and groundcrew were affected by this bolt from the blue. Some will remember the times when the Canberra bomber variants (qty 100s), Belfast (qty 10), Britannia (qty 22) and Argosy (qty 56) fleets disappeared in very short order.
Last edited by RAFEngO74to09; 19th Oct 2010 at 19:33.