AOC 1 Gp breaks ranks
 

AVM Greg Bagwell speaks out in the Telegraph..
It was all going so well until the last paragraph..
sv

Makes a lot of sense, but will the politicians listen? Unlikely...

The Gamekeeper has turned Poacher:

Obviously the Lord of the Manor is not treating his staff sufficiently well to maintain absolute loyalty. Whilst others remain in search of higher esteem to the detriment of all they serve. Clearly one is a politician and the other a Leader of men.

ah well the Dress 1A's won't be needed for the investiture...:uhoh:

Great points but no-one's listening....:ugh:

I seem to remember some time ago predicting that the RN would end up with Rafales. Interesting now that Bagwell is talking about the same possibility.

There would have to be a trade the other way, so the French will probably end up leasing some of our FSTAs.

I wonder even whether they might be persuaded to take some of our Typhoons in air defence role. That way Dassault could concentrate development on the strike versions of Rafale, and Typhoon could be left in a dedicated air-defence role.

Does all read quite well until the last paragraph. The best thing the AOC can do now is stand by his remarks. Who cares if CAS doesn't agree? I haven't found many Service people who agreed with the Chiefs (all 3) letter supporting the SDR.

The disconnect between what your average Service person (commisioned amd non-commisioned) is thinking at what the hierarchy is telling them is staggering. Finally a serving Air Officer is saying what everyone in the crewrooms has been saying for months. Good for you and stick by your guns...all be it it's not the fastest way to getting 3*, but at least its leadership not politics.:D

BBC reports "My comments have been mis-interpreted"

I accept that in this day and age working with allies is the name of the game. OK, so we might have some of our boys and girls flying Rafale - twinning 3 Sqn with a Rafale Sqn - (and maybe they get a go on our Typhoons?) But why do we not have a much closer relationship with the Luftwaffe? We do fly the same cabs, after all? Yes, Germany doesn't have any carriers but you can't land a Tiffie on a deck either.

Trim Stab - He doesn't mention the RN having Rafaels, just the possibility of 'British officers' flying them.

That could mean on exchange.

And yet, when he took over from Torpy, Dalton is on record as having said:

Kudos to AOC 1 Gp, but how is it, Dalton, that some of the RAF's 'operational commitments' (which I've highlighted in bold above) suddenly aren't needed anymore?

Out of interest, how much of her annual budget does Belgium fritter away on overseas aid to wealthier countries, or on state handouts to economic migrants?

Who teaches these people to talk like this? "I can...", "Can I..."

It's "we" as in lots of us, not "I" as in me alone.

I once witnessed the sailor bloke West flash up a power point of a Carrier referring to it as "this is me in the Med" like some sort of holiday snap (about as interesting). Pompous A**e.

OFO, there is more:

""Should we get the buybacks out of Saudi Arabia and Oman as planned, we will be back to the number of Typhoons I need," he said. "At the moment, if I don't get the [Omani] buyback and this is under discussion ... it could take me down to 95 aircraft."

Poor guy, it must be tough having his own air force! :bored:

The next Cameron stands up and starts droning on about defence of the nation being the first priority of any government, may be someone should ask him how exactly we are supposed to do that:

The Air Force has scrapped its maritime capabilities, is binning the majority of its ISTAR platforms (despite ISTAR being the buzzword of the day), has an ancient AT fleet that is falling apart with replacements coming under the heading of 'jam tomorrow' and an attack capability now being compared to Belgium's by the very person charged with leading it.

The Navy has taken out a sub-prime mortgage for 2 carriers that won't have any aircraft, at the expense of a surface fleet that is frankly outnumbered by the number of toy boats in my bath.

Whilst the Army, who appear to be doing very well at the moment, are clinging on by virtue of the fact that the politicians have gone for the 'The War' argument, an argument which is null and void post-2015 and which will leave the Army with a lot of specialist kit for light infantry dominated, 1920/30s style policing conflicts and little else. But lets not forget that post-2015 is when the Army will be sliced and diced.

So where does that leave defence of the UK the Prime Minister? And before you start trying to tell us about the high tech capabilities we have, remember one thing: Typhoon, JSF, T-45s etc may well be a the cutting edge of technology, but they can't be in 2 places at once.

This is going to make Churchill's wilderness years look like a feast for defence spending.

Got to agree.

Obviously a new drill has been added to the checklist.

BOTTLE switch . . . . . . . . . Select OUT

Shame that, it was going so well. They've probably levelled a few threats they've got left over from the Assange debacle . . .

Can't quite understand his banter about "only six squadrons left in the RAF". Even if you leave out 22, 202 (and 84*) we've still got 7, 18, 27, 28, 33, 78 and 230 .......:confused:

Duh! NOW I get it ....... :ugh::ugh::ugh:

Perhaps Air Sec, AMP and/or ACAS should tell him .......

*Edited to add: and 60(R)

Just when I felt I was going to have to eat my words and retract all those comments I've made about out VSOs not having any ba££s, it would appear that I was correct all along.

And, just when I thought 'at last, someone close to the top is making a statement' I find it was all in the wrong context. And of course we then get good old CAS steaming in telling us all he doesn't agree with his AOC. What a bunch of clowns we have running what's left of this Air Farce!

Dalton, I had quite high hopes when you took over from Torpy, and your speach about protecting our maritime and SAR assets gave comfort to me and many others. What a shame that you have now forgotten what you said, like so many other VSOs before you.

How embarrassing it must be for those left in to being compared with Belgium. If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny. But it isn't funny at all, it's pathetic, sad and deeply worrying.

Bearing in mind the far greater bombing accuracy and weapon effectiveness of our modern aircraft in comparison to those of the RFC, that seems a surprising statement.

I read once of a similar spat in the RN - a commodore disagreed publicly with his admiral and was fearful of his future.
The admiral told him, "I value your views and I respect your right to differ with me. If we agreed with each other all the time, one of us would be redundant.."
sv
PS. edited to add: AVM Bagwell asserted that These can't be too demanding then..

...Snigger :E

AOC 1 Gp has been a regular visitor to Cottesmore since last year, when the first wave of cuts to the Harrier was announced. He is the first AOC who actually appears "real", and has been very open and honest in all his briefings. I actually believe what he says, and I believe he believes what he says to us, rather than his predecessors who would say anything to make their masters proud of them.