This was posted on the Air Cadet Central forum:
Gentlemen,
You may be aware that options for the recovery of the glider fleets were presented to CAS on Monday. CAS and his senior staffs were absolutely on board with the need to salvage as much as possible from the glider recovery programme and they share our increasing frustration at the lack of progress in recovering airframes and getting cadets into the air. Despite the costs of recovery, they remain committed to gliding as a core part of the air cadet experience and, based on that commitment, have agreed to invest significant extra funds to let a contract to recover the Viking glider fleet as soon as possible. This will hopefully bring the Vikings on line quicker than current funding plans allowed.
In terms of wider plans for VGS basing and Vigilant long-term recovery CAS has asked that further work be done, hence no final decisions were made on Monday. The AOC is actively tasking key individuals with taking this work forward but it is likely to take some months before all the necessary costing evidence is available to satisfy CAS, DRes and others on the proposed next steps. In light of this further work the AOC and Comdt agreed that calling all the OC VGSs together was a potential wasted journey, particularly as some will travel long distances to reach either of the 2 venues. In simple terms, you need to know what ac will be recovered in what numbers and where they will be based. As we cannot answer those questions today, the briefing at RAF Syerston on sat 24th and at RAF Linton is postponed. The planned roads shows at Kirknewton, Linton, Cranwell, Boscombe Down and Halton are also postponed. You will be advised in due course the revised dates.
Comdt
2FTS
So I read from that the fears are starting to 'firm up':
1. Further protracted return of Viking fleet.
2. Likely scrapping of Vigilant fleet.
3. Likely loss of VGSs from current locations (smart money on the Vigilant locations). For current locations see here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunt...iding_Squadron
The only positive thing I can draw from this is that it gives at least some information - why it is treated as some sort of high-grade Top Secret fact, though, is beyond me...
The B Word