Sacked RAF pilots replaced by foreign personnel - Telegraph
The Ministry of Defence is “actively seeking” foreign personnel to pay for “surplus” training places left by British personnel dismissed earlier this year, a minister has admitted.
The Daily Telegraph revealed in February that scores of RAF pilots in training are being sacked to save money. A defence minister has now admitted that because the trainees were dismissed at such short notice, the staff and equipment for their training are still in service and must be funded.
To help meet those costs, foreign pilots will be trained. Trainee pilots from countries including Algeria and Kenya are understood to be taking up the vacant training places at RAF bases.
The sacked trainees included some who were only a few days away from becoming fully qualified to fly fighters, helicopters and transport aircraft.
The cuts are said to have badly damaged morale in the RAF, which is now actively engaged in Afghanistan and Libya.
Lord Astor of Hever, a defence minister, confirmed that the sackings have left many empty places on RAF training courses. In the House of Lords, Lord Astor was challenged about the impact of sacking the RAF trainees.
He said: “It will take some time to remove the resulting additional spare capacity from the training programme and we are actively seeking to offer any surplus training slots to foreign students." Training for foreign students is provided “at full cost” to their home governments, he said.
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