Vinrouge
“I don’t accept that service risk due to penny pinching is something that any service member should ever have to accept whilst at the same time being put in harms way. “
You should have seen the kind of problems we had in the 60s, 70s and 80s with some of the inadequate equipment we had. Compromises were made to get the new generation of fast jets (Harrier, Jaguar, Phantom etc.) into service and there was never enough money to fix every design fault straight away. Aircrew knew this and made allowances in their flying – expecting things to go wrong.
As I’ve stated before in this forum, Cold War Fast Jet flying was very much more hazardous than present day operations anyway: flying a jet that was likely to go wrong was just part of the deal you had bought into.
As I said before – if you want totally safe flying at all times then either quadruple the defence budget, or join an airline. As usual, in the end it’s all about money.
Tucumseh.
“each accident is avoidable”
Er, no. Accidents are inevitable. Incidents may be avoidable (if enough money is spent).