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Old 28th Feb 2011, 20:17
  #13 (permalink)  
Trim Stab
 
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Well for a start that means that part of the fleet would not longer be military - so are you:
Not at all. They would be dual-role, with civilian status in peacetime, military status if war was declared. This is not without precedent - look at French Securité Civile or Gendarmerie aircraft. In the UK, the crews could be entirely interchangeable without breaching any treaty - there are many army/RN/RAF reservists (ie still under contract to MOD) flying as we write on civilian aircraft, as well as many volunteer reservists (TA/RNR/RMR/RAuxAF) who also happen to by civilian pilots in their full time job. The Chicago Convention makes no distinction at all between these differing statuses. The crew could switch, as required between the fleet aircraft.

As for the aircraft themselves, these can also be dual registered - as you know plenty of RAF aircraft are also on the civil register.

The issue of the Chicago Convention is a red-herring.

a) assuming that there are an excess of e.g. C130 assets that are not needed? or
The C130 fleet might be stretched in 2011, but I am looking at the bigger picture in the future.
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