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Originally Posted by Hangarshuffle
No mate I fully disagree, after time and observation working within the offshore industry. Our systems work pretty well brilliantly- I'm talking about some highly skilled and able people here, with a similar back to back oppo who are on options of 1 month, some foreign nationals are on 90 days, its pretty variable and it works really well for the lads at the sharp end...
"Back to back"? I'm intrigued.
Are you suggesting that each operational RN ship should have a 'spare crew', virtually doubling the size of the seagoing element. Would the 'spare crew' be twiddling its thumbs in barracks for 50% of the time, would it be paid to stay at home or would it be free to seek other interim employment as in the offshore industry? Would you pay it at all while not required or would you be happy doubling a ship's 'payroll' and providing all the other benefits involved? [cost]
Would each serviceman/woman, of whatever rank and worked-up ship/system-specific skill and experience, serve on a one month or 90 day option whereby you never know whether they are going to reappear when required? Do you seriously consider that disruptive change-overs of such personnel every six weeks over a nine month deployment is a viable option? [operational capability]
Would the relief crews or even individual personnel overlap with the old crews/personnel during their disruptive change-over or just be left to get on with it? If there is a proper overlap, where would the relief crews/personnel be fed and accommodated? [operational capability and cost]
Would a ship and its new crew conduct its costly and time-consuming FOST work-up in-theatre? If yes, where would the extra training staff come from, how would they travel and where would they be accommodated? [operational capability and cost]
If a ship has to return to the UK for its turnover/work-up mid-deployment, doesn't that rather defeat the object? [operational capability and cost]
Bearing in mind that, unlike in the offshore industry, there is no great pool of suitable personnel out there on which to draw, how would you maintain people's currency, sustain a consistent individual and unit training pipeline and manage people's career development, rank structure and promotion with appropriate higher training and qualifications? [operational capability and cost]
Would people have to pay for their expensive training and certification like in the offshore industry or are you suggesting the RN should provide it free? If the latter, what sort of return of service would you advise? [cost]
You're the one proposing such changes. I'm just curious how you would implement them without any damaging effect on operational capability or exorbitant extra cost.