Future of the FAA

[Something witty]

The Perfect Storm
This is brilliant,

I must be honest in that I was slightly embarrassed when the whole Torpy v RN Fixed Wing/Carrier debate was going on, but it now looks pure genius. Not only have we managed to 'slam dunk' the RN FAA fixed wing community (forever),we are about to do the same with their amphibious rotary community.

So far they have hidden behind an RN 2* at Cap ALM and an RN 2* at JHC, both I am sure good people and truly Joint. But what they didn't expect was the RAF light blue machine to very cleverly out wit and completely out play all of them to ensure the continuance of light blue control of things that fly.

When the next Comd JHC takes over (who is.....wait for it....RAF) then I give CHF 5, maybe 6 years (when does the Sea King go? When do we pull out of Afghanistan?) before it is absorbed into a 'Joint' Maritime Force at RAF Benson (under the already established RAF SHF HQ).

I will wager that CHF will never recover from this, and even with all of the best work that Navy Command and CHF can muster they will not be able to convince us (or the bean counters) to give up our Merlins.

Possession is 9/10 ths of the law, and tell me how many Jungly pilots for RWS transition instructors they have,one or two maximum I am led to believe - lets just call it quits and call them exchange pilots until they transfer.

My advice to any CHF pilot is to jump ship early - of course we are going to need a bit of maritime experience to get the Freaks up to speed for embarked ops, but we in the Chinook fleet do it well enough when required. But if you do not jump soon, then it will be too late, as we do not need all of the CHF aircrew to bolster our Merlin fleet that is for sure.

A well thought through and very clever method of ensuring our primacy of the air - my previous embarrassment is replaced by respect for some very astute and forward thinking work .

MM (& TH)
Ok, I'll bite.

Perhaps your first instinct should return?

I don't agree with interservice rivalry of the destructive nature, particularly in public, however needs must.


There is no more serious a matter than the Defence of the UK, our population and our interests, at home and abroard. Across the Forces we all have our beliefs in how well we do our job and how important our roles are - these are pushed up the chain, prioritised, and we continue to exist or we get scrapped; its an imperfect system in an imperfect world.

Where the system really falls down is when an individual service turns it's guns on the capabilites of another Service with the express and sole aim of empire building for it's own, single service benefit with no solid justification to satisfy the 'common good.'

The whole language of the RAF, their incessant PR spin and approach to the RN FW and latterly RW assets (AAC's assets too) has been to seek to deny the RN and Army of those assets and capabilities for the sole benefit of the RAF with no discernible benefit (and many severe disadvantages) for the Defence of the UK.

It's not just my job, it's the jobs of all the others, Engineers, loggies and Aircrew... but it's far more than that too - the lives of those who have already died and those who will die or be wounded, on the ground and at sea, because the RAF can not help itself from meddling in the well established and life-saving operational capabilities of the other Services.

So, think again - are you not embarrassed by the concerted and treasonous actions of your 'service' over the years to remove or reduce the capabilities of the other two Services at the cost of capability and lives or have you no basic morals?

Call me a bluff old traditionalist but I always thought that, aside from all the funny things that happen, ultimately we are trained on expensive machines not for our own benefit but for that of others, sadly a fact that appears lost on some members of the RAF - here's more of a Junglie perspective of the serious side to what we do:

Service flying (and thus for us, Service life) is about getting the very best you can achieve from your airframe whilst mitigating the risks in order to best assist those in need on the ground - everything you and your crew, engineers etc do is with that express aim.

You work for the blokes on the ground, - that means you log hours airborne, not additional hours sat on a refuel spot at BSN - you might have joined to get hours to go commercial but tough, you are NOT there for your 'BA Tokens' to log those hours is to rob them of their ammunition, water, food, bags to sh** in and perhaps most importantly the mail from their family that they've not received for weeks.

When blokes are seeing or hearing of their mate's blown up or shot in front of them on a near daily basis and yet still continue to patrol out of the gate or sit in a sangar every day for no other reason than not wanting to let down their oppos, you don't even think about getting or awarding a gong for the act of just doing your job.... even if its 'done well' a few times... he or she wont get anything for just doing theirs well for nigh on six months

It also means that, although the JHC FOB didn't state until recently 'thou shalt maintain night currencey' you don't take that as leave to sack off night flying between tours as that is dangerous and reduces capability and increases threat (not least because of subsequent Crab embarrassment that has in the past prevented them from allowing the Junglies (who have always maintained night currency and also continue to practice night dust landings to more severe light levels) to crack on to get the job done at night - further 'service' politics getting in the way of capability).

It means going to the RAF Armourer at BSN and requesting a refresher for door gunners and Aircrewman on the GPMG strip and clean so as to better understand the problems and ways we can ensure damage is recognised early or prevented so we preserve limited stocks of spares and give ourselves and our oppos the best chance should we need to fire. (he was surprised but pleased to see the RN/RM- the RAF just gave him dirty knackered weapons they kept breaking whilst continuing to ignore his advise)

Rant over.