Mickj3:-
Just out of interest. If MOD/RAF are having such problems with crossover of US to UK acceptance/standards/airworthiness/documentation etc with Rivet joint that has been flying all these years what will be the situation with the F35.
Would that were all there was to this shambles. It's not so much the problem as you describe, more a problem with the MOD/MAA, which doesn't 'do' airworthiness. It doesn't do airworthiness because it rid itself of anyone who could and, just for good measure, binned all the Regs.
Of course, none of that happened according to the Haddon-Cave Report, which now has the status of the Holy Grail, so instead new Regs are made on the hoof as and when required. That is no way to run a whelk stall, let alone Military Airworthiness and it's all now coming to a head, with RJ just this week's item on an ever lengthening list that no amount of stove-piping can conceal.
For those who are of a mind that if someone else is happy then so should we be, I would remind them that others were happy with the airworthiness of the Chinook Mk2 and the Nimrod Mk2, which together killed 43 people in just two airworthiness related accidents alone.
UK Military Airworthiness Provision and Military Air Accident Investigation are both in dire need of reform. To achieve that they must be freed from the MOD and from each other.
Only then can the rebuilding of UK Military Air Safety commence.
Only then can we have confidence in being told that any UK Military aircraft is airworthy or not.
Self Regulation Doesn't Work and in Aviation it Kills!