Telegraph - RAF bare bones article
Retired Radar Bod who spent his last 4 years in the service trying to manage a very important service (very aircraft related) that required 24/7 cover with a lack of experienced manpower (All Ranks) and when I got people totally 'Q'ed they were nicked for OOA on mass (almost 1/4 of the section on one occasion) or posted. Morale down the Sh!ter, plus no budget to deal with a number important issues raised due to changes enforced by the MAA. The RAF is broken, but it isn't my problem anymore.
How much of the problem is due to paying fit men to sit on their arses whilst we import foreigners to do the work which they should be doing?
Or paying for the bastard children of runaway fathers. Nothing against bastards, just the runaway fathers - and the women who intentionally got themselves pregnant for the benefits.
Our social services need a root and branch overhaul.
Or paying for the bastard children of runaway fathers. Nothing against bastards, just the runaway fathers - and the women who intentionally got themselves pregnant for the benefits.
Our social services need a root and branch overhaul.
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Retired Radar Bod who spent his last 4 years in the service trying to manage a very important service (very aircraft related) that required 24/7 cover with a lack of experienced manpower (All Ranks) and when I got people totally 'Q'ed they were nicked for OOA on mass (almost 1/4 of the section on one occasion) or posted. Morale down the Sh!ter, plus no budget to deal with a number important issues raised due to changes enforced by the MAA. The RAF is broken, but it isn't my problem anymore.
S-D
1.3VStall wrote
What is unproven about it?
Op Ellamy (Libya)
'Typhoon a year on the road' pdf download is available at the following link.
http://www.baesystems.com/download/B...ar-on-the-road
together with an unproven Typhoon strike capability
Op Ellamy (Libya)
Sqn Ldr Bolton led the first ever Typhoon-only strike mission and a multi-aircraft COMAO at night against a target near Tripoli. Setting the scene Sqn Ldr Bolton told AIR International:
“We were due to fly with some French Rafales, a Growler, and tankers from France and the UK. Very bad weather in Corsica meant the Rafales were unable to safely get airborne or recover to their base leaving us and the Growler to continue the mission.”
He added: “Not only did we get airborne and strike our own targets we re-rolled whilst airborne and took out the targets assigned to the other aircraft also.”
“We were due to fly with some French Rafales, a Growler, and tankers from France and the UK. Very bad weather in Corsica meant the Rafales were unable to safely get airborne or recover to their base leaving us and the Growler to continue the mission.”
He added: “Not only did we get airborne and strike our own targets we re-rolled whilst airborne and took out the targets assigned to the other aircraft also.”
http://www.baesystems.com/download/B...ar-on-the-road
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Salad dodger "naive musings..." This is pprune. What were you expecting?
If senior officers -or anyone else -want to air their moans in the Daily Telegraph is it then reasonable to expect everyone to "just observe"?
If senior officers -or anyone else -want to air their moans in the Daily Telegraph is it then reasonable to expect everyone to "just observe"?
Last edited by ShotOne; 27th Sep 2014 at 08:30.
Typhoon93, read something about the US Army's attempt to do a deep penetration AH-64 raid in Iraq during 2003. They did take a bit of a shoeing. One Apache shot down and most of the others damaged.
In that one night, the Iraqi militias did a good job of destroying the notion that we had air supremacy and instead made us realise that at best we had air superiority and even then, in the worst case scenario, only at a defined and local level when we could commit resources to ensuring it.
Fast forward to 2014, with the amount of kit including MANPADS floating round N Iraq - remember ISIL have been moving kit freely back and forth across the Iraqi Syrian border and have captured all sorts inc SA-16 and Air a Defence Artillery, then if you do put AH into Iraq, it should be with the expectation of losing a few.
Now, back to that small strike capability we've deployed! But don't forget we've had AT and ISR deployed since the start of this venture nigh on 2 months ago, so taking the whole package together it is quite a commitment for a now relatively small Air Force, but with SDSR round the corner, vital if we are to prevent losing even more capability next year.
Melchett01
In other words, somebody in Iraq read a book on the history of air power including the chapter that covered how a technically and numerically inferior force can disrupt the operations of a superior one (examples would be Vietnam and the Battle of Britain (ROC)). Just because the some method of operation is old fashioned, doesn't mean it doesn't work.
Whenurhappy
Bitter and Twisted? Hardly. I don't know the other guy from Adam.
In other words, somebody in Iraq read a book on the history of air power including the chapter that covered how a technically and numerically inferior force can disrupt the operations of a superior one (examples would be Vietnam and the Battle of Britain (ROC)). Just because the some method of operation is old fashioned, doesn't mean it doesn't work.
Whenurhappy
Bitter and Twisted? Hardly. I don't know the other guy from Adam.
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'We have too few aircraft, too few pilots and too much tasking' - didn't I recall the same scenario around this time 74 years ago?
Politicians are amateurs. Despite their first-class degrees in useless subjects and their supposedly mighty intellects, they learn nothing except how to pander to popularism. Their ability to look into the future, especially where military spending and capability is concerned, doesn't even make it to the end of their smug noses.
When the guano does hit the fan out they crawl out in an attempt to recover a situation of their own making. The 'political class' of the past 2 decades has reduced our Armed Forces to 2nd division levels of capability yet 'they' still have aspirations, nay delusions, of the Premier League. To extend the analogy, money has to be spent not only to get into the Premier League but, more pertinently, has to be spent to stay there and that is where we, as a nation, have been failed.
Amateurs the lot of them and not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier......or a pilot or nav or 'grunt' or 'bootneck'.
Politicians are amateurs. Despite their first-class degrees in useless subjects and their supposedly mighty intellects, they learn nothing except how to pander to popularism. Their ability to look into the future, especially where military spending and capability is concerned, doesn't even make it to the end of their smug noses.
When the guano does hit the fan out they crawl out in an attempt to recover a situation of their own making. The 'political class' of the past 2 decades has reduced our Armed Forces to 2nd division levels of capability yet 'they' still have aspirations, nay delusions, of the Premier League. To extend the analogy, money has to be spent not only to get into the Premier League but, more pertinently, has to be spent to stay there and that is where we, as a nation, have been failed.
Amateurs the lot of them and not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier......or a pilot or nav or 'grunt' or 'bootneck'.
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MP
Rather good to see an MP who appears to know what he is talking about and has got his facts straight. Parliament appears well stocked with former army officers who ruthlessly champion their old service. Good to have some balance. Not sure if it will have any effect mind....
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Today’s combat aircraft are more capable than those of 1991 but eventually technology cannot substitute for numbers
So at a time where we are struggling to hang onto our ac techs we go and warn them off for on/off Ops for up to 3 years. Don't think even the new Techy pay will prevent large numbers from banging out.
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I hate to say this but the next 5-10 years will see even more cuts - not just in defence but in everything else - the politicians are loth to say anything (or "forget") the deficit
Expect we'll be down to a couple of FJ squadrons by then
Expect we'll be down to a couple of FJ squadrons by then
I hate to say this but the next 5-10 years will see even more cuts - not just in defence but in everything else - the politicians are loth to say anything (or "forget") the deficit
'The Financial Context for the 2015 SDSR: The End of UK Exceptionalism?' argues that on current spending plans and growth projections UK defence spending is set to fall below the NATO 2 per cent target for the first time next financial year, to an estimated 1.88 per cent of GDP in 2015/16.
The briefing shows how existing Ministry of Defence (MoD) planning assumptions (for modest real-terms growth in its budget after 2015/16) would, in the context of projected GDP growth, see spending falling to around 1.7 per cent of GDP by 2020/21. Given wider government plans for spending cuts after 2015/16, however, this could prove over-optimistic. Further cuts in the 2015 Spending Review (of between 4 per cent and 10 per cent in real terms over five years) could see defence spending falling to between 1.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent of GDP in 2020/21.
Given the risk of further such cuts, the MoD’s interests would be best served by conducting the next SDSR in parallel with (rather than subsequent to) the 2015 Spending Review. This would help to ensure that government leaders (in both Nos. 10 and 11 Downing Street) are fully aware of the capability consequences of proposed spending cuts before they are finalised.
Because of the short time involved in such a schedule – perhaps only three months after the election before key capability choices need to be made – the MoD will need to complete much of the detailed work on the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a range of possible policy options in advance of the May 2015 General Election. Without such work, ministers could find themselves – as in 2010 – being forced to make key decisions without adequate supporting data.
The briefing shows how existing Ministry of Defence (MoD) planning assumptions (for modest real-terms growth in its budget after 2015/16) would, in the context of projected GDP growth, see spending falling to around 1.7 per cent of GDP by 2020/21. Given wider government plans for spending cuts after 2015/16, however, this could prove over-optimistic. Further cuts in the 2015 Spending Review (of between 4 per cent and 10 per cent in real terms over five years) could see defence spending falling to between 1.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent of GDP in 2020/21.
Given the risk of further such cuts, the MoD’s interests would be best served by conducting the next SDSR in parallel with (rather than subsequent to) the 2015 Spending Review. This would help to ensure that government leaders (in both Nos. 10 and 11 Downing Street) are fully aware of the capability consequences of proposed spending cuts before they are finalised.
Because of the short time involved in such a schedule – perhaps only three months after the election before key capability choices need to be made – the MoD will need to complete much of the detailed work on the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a range of possible policy options in advance of the May 2015 General Election. Without such work, ministers could find themselves – as in 2010 – being forced to make key decisions without adequate supporting data.
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While I very much agree with those wanting to see the RAF being given the tools for the job, it's concerning to hear that some feel that a deployment of six aircraft will leave it "fundamentally broken". Is this a true statement? If so, how did we come to a point where deploying less than a twentieth of our fast jets can have such an effect?
Last edited by ShotOne; 28th Sep 2014 at 15:05.
Politicians are amateurs. Despite their first-class degrees in useless subjects and their supposedly mighty intellects, they learn nothing except how to pander to popularism. Their ability to look into the future, especially where military spending and capability is concerned, doesn't even make it to the end of their smug noses.
Oh, how very true!
LJ