Have I missed it? Where are the 5000 RAF personnel going from?

Nurse,

I fully share your concerns - see this thread which petered out six months ago...

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...oint+Nimrod+R1

interesting the 12 new chinooks are being linked to the Army

Through ignorance?

So whats the story with the Chinook? Are these new orders, or orders previously announced? Is this a reduction of previously announced orders? Does this cover the HC3?

there wasn't an order for new chinooks!
there was an aspiration for 22 new chinooks but no contracts or funding allocated by the looks of it.

The 22 new Chinooks were supposed to be funded from the savings made by introducing the SAR-H programme. Whether this actually works (especially if SAR-H goes ahead with no mil involvement) remains to be seen...

RAF Manpower Cuts
 

Grabbers asked where the cut of 5000 personnel would come from. A combination of cancellation of Nimrod MRA4, Kinloss not required as an RAF base, disbandment of the Harrier force, Cottesmore not required as an RAF base, ASTOR to be retired when no longer required in Afghanistan (2015 ? if you believe that) and presumably efficiencies in ATAR manning as new aircraft types phase in will all effect the total force numbers required. As always, manning will be controlled though a combination of adjusting retention and recruiting, and probably offers of redundancy.

The RAF has coped with much more draconian cuts before and will rise to the challenge again, although clearly the years ahead will be both difficult and disappointing to some. I once met a former Canberra sqn cdr in the 1980s who recounted how 150 of his fellow aircrew sqn ldrs discovered that their services were no longer required in their current role via a list of names posted on the Officers' Mess notice board ! Clearly many thousands more aircrew and groundcrew were affected by this bolt from the blue. Some will remember the times when the Canberra bomber variants (qty 100s), Belfast (qty 10), Britannia (qty 22) and Argosy (qty 56) fleets disappeared in very short order.

So what about Puma 2 & Wildcat?
 

Any news on these little gems?

I assume the Wildcat is going ahead as it would most likely have been mentioned in the PM's speech. Puma 2 seems to have had no mention either - I assume that gets the go-ahead despite rumours of only 12 before today?

Anyone in the know?

The Defence Trg PFI at St Athan has been canx, will this see the demise of MFTS and SARH? I do hope so...............

Wildcat
 

appleavi8or
Wildcat is going ahead but no numbers mentioned (Page 25).
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum...=furl&CRE=sdsr

Don't know about MFTS, but given that no mention was made of a mil SAR capability in the future, one might deduce that SAR-H will in fact go ahead but without any mil involvement, as has been mooted recently...pure speculation of course...

It did actually, in the Q&A session which followed the main announcement, and it's going ahead.

Whilst the impact upon the military will be massive, I can't help but feel sorry for our civilian colleagues as well. To lose 25,000 personnel from a total of only 87,000 is quite hideous!

:ouch:

The "R" word was mentioned today in our briefing. It was acknowledged that 5000 personnel in 5 years could not be achieved through natural wastage alone.

DIN on the subject today mentioned that a Redundancy Package would be announced 'Later today'.

I'm missing something. I note more than the occasional throw-way line regarding new ISTAR capabilities (in all three sevices) but it seem a little vague. As for the Nimrod maritime capability being replaced by other assets...............

All the signs of a rush job.:ugh:

The "R" Word
 

RAFEngO

Changes on this scale cannot be managed by the usual manning regulators. A redundancy scheme will be run for Service personnel and a paid early release scheme for civilians in accordance with the usual arrangements for such schemes, including - in the case of civilians - consultation with the Trade Unions.

The above taken from the MoD website. I wonder how attractive the redundancy package will be? Not expecting much if I'm honest. I'm also curious as to why the "...150 aircrew sqn ldrs" was highlighted. Are/were they more deserving than the rest?

Grabbers

The story was recounted to me by one of the sqn ldrs involved and I used it to illustrate the enormous scale of the cuts. He didn't mention how many other aircrew and groundcrew were involved but clearly it must have been in the many thousands. Prior to those cuts, RAF strength had been around 100,000, a figure almost unimaginable today.

Re SAR-H , North Devon MP & Defence Minister Pr#*$k, no I mean Nick Harvey stated in the local rag , North Devon Journal , that the Chiv. SAR Flt could possibly re-locate to Exeter Airport when civilianized , also the Merlin could be used for SAR work ????
:ugh::ugh:

I know this will sound a bit silly, but, assuming a reasonably even amount of cut from each service, if only 3% is saved by culling 2 complete fleets of Aircraft what the heck is the other 97% spent on?

RAFEngO

All clear now. Wonder how the Govt will spin the, I anticipate paltry, redundancy package though. :{