Just culture can exist, but can sometimes only exist as long as the posting cycle in the command chain.
There are some real megalomaniacal very senior officers out there (star rank) who are hellbent on perception as opposed the right decision. Perception gets you promoted, doing the right thing doesn't.
How many senior officer shriv and pjhq table top exercises include command decisions based upon supervision, authorisation and flight safety? I don't know, but I bet all are designed around moulding commanders to be op focussed rather than make balanced risk decisions. At how many table tops have individuals turned around and said "we aren't launching for a low priority mission as I have supervisory concerns?"
What is going to get a senior officer promoted? Performing under a situation of complete lack of resource, pushing the limits, perhaps bleeding his guys dry, or someone who speaks out and says we don't have enough to complete the task?
If the RAF very very senior hierarchy is serious about just culture, they need to make a serious statement and carry out very public actions to demonstrate their devotion and understanding of just culture. Such as sacking anyone who blatantly goes out their way to put their career ahead of just culture. star rank included.
There is a lot of learned helplessness out there too. People are reporting, but things are still getting worse, with lots of paperwork being generated, deck chairs on the titanic being shuffled, but nothing changing. Documenting risks on a psrr will not stop an accident. Spending some of that 2 billion cost underspend on risk mitigation will do however.
But seeing as the solution is
More people (not talking about numbers on books I'm talking about trained and experienced personnel here coming up with the goods)
More downroute spares and tooling/role support
Better training
Regulation based upon common sense and best practice, not the exceptional op requirement which has resulted from decades of cuts. How many 'short term' changes to regulation to meet a particular short term requirement are still there? 130 hours in a month springs to mind.....
Which involves spending money, I think we know we had better get used to rearranging chairs on the titanic.
