Beagle, as always I bow to your knowledge of facts relating to all aspects of aviation.....however, this is more of an opinion and oddly enough I disagree with your view.
I think that the time has come for the Reds to go. We can't really have any sacred cows anymore.
Given the money that it costs to run the team, how do we get everyone else to tighten their belt? Inside and outside the RAF, we need to be seen to be taking the same hit as the rest of the world, particularly the public, who fund the whole thing.
The RAF don't need elitist recruiting tools, and as for them being a showcase for British Industry, yeah right. The same folk who made the A380 engine and the Nimrod? The people who "launched" a Submarine today but due to "technical issues" it failed to get wet.
The farce of a contract that makes it cheaper to buy the carriers than cancel the contract, and the huge amount of money paid up front for the MRa4 that the customer walked away from.... I think that tells the potential international customers more about British Industry than watching the Reds will.
The RAF could save the cost of the Reds many times over by just stopping all the waste, but how do we get anyone to take a hit on SSSA when they see the circus staying in top hotels?
Helicopters stored at Shawbury for the want of a dashboard, Tornados with holes drilled in the wrong bit of the spar, MRa4, Valley producing Pilots at a fantastic rate for years and yet the number of planes decrereasing all the time. Leeming gets resurfaced in time for their F3s to retire.
There's nothing difficult about seeing where the money is wasted. Over four years training to get an F3 Pilot CR and then he leaves at the end of his first operational tour.
The loss of the Reds would be a bit of a statement, their continueed absence would be a loss to the general public. However, I think the time has come to take such a hit.
Mostly, since we would all feel strongly about it, when we were missing them we would all find it easier to focus on finding examples of waste to put in Wikileaks or Private Eye, to highlight exactly what the RAF are funding with the savings from having given up the worlds finest aerobatic display team.