Melchett,

I never said otherwise - all I said was that you won't be able to keep SH asset numbers up on the tenuous basis of providing MACA - which you seem to fully agree with! Neither was I advocating a cut in SH numbers, just realistically saying it is probably inevitable...

By the way, I doubt the rest of your argument will hold much sway with the politicians and purse string holders in the post Afghanistan environment - best of luck!

You're probably right Biggus, I am expecting there to be a major push for a peace dividend post 2015. Although just what is left to cut is frankly beyond me. You know it's bad when a senior Lib Dem - Menzies Campbell - comes out on national TV and says defence of the UK has to be the first priority of the government and we have cut too far! :uhoh:

The next review will be coloured to some degree, I expect, by whatever threats to the realm and our Western and other overseas allies is perceived. It also depends on which Government we have, that will really carry some bearing.

If its Ted the Red, then for all the opposition complaints about Defence cuts (always carefully worded by Jim Murphy to attack the logic, not the depth of the cuts) then I think regardless of the military concerns and no matter how obvious we shall see all three services, and I'll put money on the R.A.F. especially, cut back below the irreducible minimum! That is, of course, imagining that it hasn't been achieved yet.:sad:

FB:)

Wrathmonk, as are UK standby SH aircraft. And they are called out about as often. Doesn't mean you need 6 Sqns of AD assets to generate a pair and and a spare does it? It's only called upon rarely, but when it is it could be of national interest - just like the national Sby RW assets. So, Typhoon is multi role and that justifies it? It's not more multirole than a CH47 though, especially in a UK homebase scenario.

Melchett - the original plan was Merlin 3/3a to CHF to be backfilled by 24 CH47F (UK Mk6). A 'peace dividend' has already been taken and the buy reduced to 14, hence why the original plan to re-equip 28/78 with Chinook needs to change; combined with the smaller Puma 2 programme there are potentially 2 Sqn plates at risk.

I suspect that Mr Campbell is of that view primarily because he is annoyed at the loss from his consituency of the northern Typhoon squadrons, and their accompanying legions of personnel. The promised arrival of thousands of squaddies from Germany sometime in the next 5 years probably doesn't hold that great an attraction to the more genteel denizens of East Fife, who provide 'Ming' with the core of his support. Let's just say that while there will still be cash flowing into the local economy, less of it might be spent on restaurants and golf...l

Don't know the bloke, not an easy job as has been proved in recent years!
I don't care what his background is, he needs to build a balanced force that we can afford without any agendas, stop fleets looking after their own interests and stop papering over the cracks. There is still a lot of money in defence and we need more bang for our buck, real tangible improvements, not ambitious projects that fail to deliver.
I stayed through 2 redundancy tranches because I still think the job is worth it, fingers crossed he is up to the job :ok:

Might want to sort the RAF website out, not a good impression with 13 and 14 Sqn still on GR4 and other mistakes, looks like we are even counting disbanded Sqns RAF - Recently Disbanded

Well, as suggested in a later post, I bookmarked this :p

Can anyone confirm that ACM Peach gets VCDS vice Gen Houghton?

From: http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles/A2C32BC9_5056_A318_A80F230364F982FF.doc

What about the future; is there still a glass ceiling?

NATO - Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum | Air Marshal Graham Stacey

(not that AM GS hasn't done badly to date of course!)

Graham Stacey is an exception, not a precedent.

Why is he not a precedent?

Because only a republic has a precedent, we have a monarch.

Alfred,

Because he isn't aircrew! GS has managed to get to 3* without doing any 'core' RAF roles since his first 1* tour. That's because those jobs are almost exclusively reserved for aircrew (there are a few engineers about above 1*, and I'm not counting the chief vicar, chief doctor etc). A shrinking pool of aircrew means they will start to edge the other branches out of the non-core jobs in the not too distant future, as a matter of policy (albeit not published). GS has got there just as the window of opportunity is closing.

Whether this is right or wrong is another matter of course.

In my humble opinion, both are fine officers and I wish them well with the task they face. I even saw Peachy smile on one occasion!