CGB:-
Looking at the Shoreham report, it would appear that external regulation also has the ability to fail.
Indeed, and the CAA got criticised for it by the AAIB report! When was the last SI that openly criticised the Military Regulator? Any system can, and eventually will, fail. Of course! All the more reason to make it as robust as possible therefore. Making Operator, Regulator, and Investigator one and the same is a dead cert for failure. In the case of UK Military Aviation to the tune of 70 deaths catalogued in this forum, let alone the billions squandered, all in wholly avoidable airworthiness related accidents.
For national security purposes let alone the sheer needless waste, we must do better and make the reform of UK Military Air Safety our top priority.