Originally Posted by
BossEyed
I know Sir Christopher posts here so I'll choose my words carefully. Anyone who says this is either lying, is delusional, or fundamentally doesn't understand what's going on.
This was done primarily due to cost. Middleton was sat no more than 4ft away from me when told us as such. He said that the plan up until late summer of last year was to recover the Vigilants, but eventually SERCO said the job was beyond them. The RAF went out and got quotes from, IIRC, four other firms whose prices were far outside what the RAF was willing to pay.
The needs of volunteers and cadets were considered? Interesting, because I don't recall any consultation. I don't recall even being told anything meaningful via official channels about the extent of the problem, the difficulties they were having from an engineering point of view,the proposals that were being looked at or even what 2FTS were trying to accomplish or what their vision of the future was- and I don't know of anyone in our Region holding the rank of Wg Cdr or below who was. As for the future plan- I think that was decided before all this even blew up. MAA regs are a convenient smokescreen.
All we got for two years was the odd missive via email from Middleton which was invariably devoid of substance, other than asking for our trust and giving thinly veiled threats against posting on social media. The people you are defending kept us in the dark and fed us bull**** for two years, Sir Chistopher. THAT is what we are really upset about, not that the final outcome was announced by Parliament.
The people you're defending have killed the one thing that made the ACO stand out from all its rivals and competitors. They've come up with an abortion of a plan that has no short-term benefits, will massively under-deliver in the medium term and which will be utterly unsustainable in the long term. I say this as someone being asked to stay on and help implement it. Well, excuse me if I don't hold their hand as they jump off a cliff. I suggest that they instead offer up a prayer to St Jude.