Originally Posted by
smujsmith
Like you Nutloose, I'm confused as to why they should want to do this. The rank of Junior Technician is well established in the RAF. I wonder if the next move will be the encirclement of Sergeants stripes to denote Technical Sergeant and the expunging of Chief Technician. I suppose it's not for an old crusty ex serviceman like me to question the "modern thinking". I just can't see any logic in the new titles.
Smudge
The removal of the ranks of Jnr Tech, Plt Off and I believe Marshal of the RAF was recommended by the Bett Report mid 1990s. From memory, the intent was to bring some form of rationalisation/standardisation to the services rank structures and as part of the push for the draw down. The introduction of SAC(T) followed as a recommendation of the 1995 Logistics Trade Review. The SAC(T) training route was, amongst other things, to remove the depletion effect of manpower from squadrons when SACs went off to the schools on their JT courses. While undergoing their JT course the manning count was borne by their sqn even although there was no guarantee the airman/woman would return to the sqn. The original intention post Bett was that the rank insignia would be that of the extant SAC. However, the engineering trade sponsors successfully argued that an additional identifier would be useful to identify and separate those SACs who had met the operational performance standard i.e fully qualified from those who were not. Hence the circle around the props. Quite a move