Engines:-
What I don't think what necessarily helps is trying to use casualty figures from accidents that don't have 'airworthiness' as a primary cause as a main argument for change. (Sorry, Chug, if you disagree). But what I do think is absolutely flaming vital is that the MoD gets its 'airworthiness house' in order as soon as practicable.
I'm not using casualty figures as a main argument for anything other than to underline the gravity of a situation whereby the operator is judge and jury of its own conduct as well as of its own accidents. We have time and again seen instances whereby evidence has been withheld from BoI's, witnesses have been withheld from BoIs, BoI findings have been changed upon 'review', families have been serially lied to, coroners have been lied to, and evidence offered to address this subversion refused as not being 'new'. All that is over and above the deliberate suborning of Regulations to the extent that knowingly grossly unairworthy aircraft were illegally released to service.
Given such conduct I cannot see how anything can be taken at face value from such a source. That is why I call accidents 'airworthiness related' whereby the only reason that proven airworthiness shortcomings were not found to have contributed to an accident was because the operator said so. Air Safety has to be founded in trust or it is nothing. UK Military Air Safety has now reached that nadir and must be placed in independent hands to restore that essential trust, ie an independent MAA and MAAIB, both of the MOD and each other.
With respect, the MOD will never get its house in order, and airworthiness will remain unsafe in its hands. As to:-
we must never let 'airworthiness' (or 'air safety') become such a 'holy grail' that it damages our ability to deliver effective and acceptably safe kit to the front line in a timely way.
Who on earth is proposing that? The whole point of Air Safety in Military Aviation is to enhance Operational Capability. The reason there is an OC problem now is because of the unairworthiness infecting the whole military airfleet, which in turn is because of action/inaction by the MOD. It is nothing less than a national scandal.