Happy New Year to all our readers except any AIR Cadets, who, for another good while yet, may need to be GROUND Cadets.
Not long to go now to the 3rd anniversary of the famous " pause" - the longest pause in history, and where are we now ?
We did have some Vigilant A/C airborne in one location but now they're grounded with an engine issue, and we have one day a weekend Viking ops at Syerston. If they get a wriggle on, they may even get the Vigilant A/C sorted just in time to do the flypast to mark their withdrawal in 2019/20 !!
Staff continue to drift away, and many huge issues to resolve, not to mention re-training, working out how to fill the jobs that FSC's may not be allowed to do etc, but hey, they can play on a PTT !!
And of course with the contract for the sale of 28 Tutor's and slow progress on staff convex there, (plus of course the fact that the Tutor's history is not outstanding !), there's little chance that getting bottoms off the ground in huge numbers is a hope rather than a planned fact, not to mention the proposal to establish more AEF Units.
As a management audit, it doesn't look like the master plan is going to be a winner - in fact with £/$ exchange and pressure on Defence spending, I wonder when the Minister will call "time" ? Although being positive we could maybe use some of the new accommodation blocks for Cadet camps, - that is if their location doesn't close down before they can be used.
Only thing missing really was a few Gongs in the Honours list !
