Firstly, with apologies to Lord Trenchards Brat, with there being over 30,000 users of this site i am sure that there must be some near naming on profiles, but when you pick your name there was no conflicts, any way, the cost to the MOD every year to keep the Reds in the air is £80m upwards, , as i said before, for every hour flown now requires 24 hrs maintainance, the Airframe is tired out, tailplanes have to be removed every 25 hrs for NDT checking, this takes 4 men 3 hrs at a time to carry out, along with the NDT specialist being brought in from Waddo every day, then there is the functionals and duplicate (independent) inspections, the continual problem with the Hyd 2 system airiating causing the R.A.T. to pop in flight, the rising cost of jet fuel as well as deisel,the wagee bill for a squadron of 130 people is neaely £5m, Bea Systems no longer sponsor the team, every one who wants to buy Hawk have done now, the hotel bills are hardly covered by the Airshow fee,s Ping may throw in a few golf clubs every year and thats about it, people may think i am anti Reds, let me tell you it was one of the highlights of my Military Career being one of the "Blues"...............but i also spent many years on the Harrier and Nimrod force....and to see the decimation of the RAF i love being carried out at the moment, i cannot justify a squadron of 13 jets being used purley to display for 4 months of the year when you are getting rid of the only Close Air Support jet we had left (Typhoon and Tornado are IDS a/c)
The Reds have even lost their role as secondary air defence fighter in the Mixed Fighter role, the weapons boxes have been removed and replaced with GPS............i dont want to see them go but i would rather see every Guy/Gal on the ground with the full protective kit they deserve instead of just the second hand kit they have to hand back at Kandahar Air base when they are repatriated...left for the next set of poor buggers coming in on Timmy Tristar.......sorry boys but its time to go