Mr Grim,
We are all entitled to our own opinions, for what it's worth I have been honest and upfront about my position in the RAF and my opinion is based on what I see at a FJ station with an awful lot of FJ aircrew around. The guy who's thoughts and opinions I had mentioned is a close work mate (who has spent an awful lot of time working in the UAV community) and the conversations were far from mere bar chat. In the end it all makes very little difference to me as I will still be working away fixing the damn things should they have a pilot sat in them or not!
You clearly seem very informed, but are not in the IPT? So does that mean your opinions are formed from bar chit chat too?