You know you have become a third rate Air Force when....
 

..... Your shiny new fighter aircraft have to be trailed around the work by someone else's tanker force. (RAF News Friday 12 Apr 13. Italian AF KC-767 trail 1 (F) Sqn to Malaysia). :rolleyes:

Props start falling off basic trainers :uhoh:

Three successive graduations from RAF Cranwell that didn't include a single pilot :(

You know you have become a third rate Air Force when....
 

You don't have an airborne jamming capability.
You don't have an MPA capability.
You don't have a CSAR/TRAP (or credible PR) capability.

To name but 3.

Sun:{

Ahh, but you do have lots and lots of senior officers, who's job titles are a string of meaningless letters, and must therefore be very important.

Sounds like a Third World African State, remember the bling, they need lots of bright gold braid and lots of tinware, they need to look important even if they have nothing to command...

Wednesday afternoon sport stopped.
The BBMF is wheeled-out at Air Power demos.
Capability delivery is measured in numbers of bombs dropped rather that tonnage.
FJ pilots started flying fewer hours a month than most people work in a day.

Every aircraft type has its own airfield and there is still room to share.

When did it start?

Wed Sport
 

Get some time in Pub User!

3rd Rate
 

When far too many of the stations you were posted to are now closed as RAF bases:

Swinderby
Kinloss
Finningley
Gutersloh
Aldergrove

That's just 29 years of my RAF life down the drain!

Not closed - Odiham (dump)
Benson (Not bad)
Shawbury (Pretty good)

Ho hum?

You openly brag on the Defence Intranet about how you feature in the top 57 of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Employers in the UK.:D

Not enough for BEagle to moan about!:ok:

CG

You know you have become a third rate Air Force when....
 

There are more ATC Cadets than Airmen.
Most of your commanders only have Jubilee medals.
Additional duties take priority over flying.

I could go on..............

...there are probaly fewer `active` pilots in the RAF now, than the number of Squadrons we once had....

You are in the RAF.

The RFC was a better outfit, by far.

Just ask Biggles, the Professor, and Algy. :ok:

You know you are third rate when you bring a 5th Gen fighter into service thereby giving you some form of first day punch. Thus elevating you from the fourth rate service you were prior.

To be second rate you have to be able to find a warship and sink it.;)

.

And you award pilots wings to people who don't actually fly aeroplanes. :eek: :ugh: :mad:
.

..when you actually worry about silly articles submitted by retired officers and devote threads to refuting them - rather than giving Sharkey (OOps I mentioned the evil entity) a patronising ignoring.

Unhappy Days.
 

Well folks,
It sounds like things are pretty 'Crook in Tularook'. Same gig in Aus.
Lots of brass and no kit. I am long out of the service (1974) but we did have three Sqns. of Victor tankers. One enjoyed servicing 'Frightnings, Buccs, Jumpers, Vulcans, Chocolate Bombers, Tombs and our NATO cousins.
Chins up and have a fine English ale. I shall be at Duxford in July doing same.
I am addicted to Spits, Hurris et al.
BBMF with 6 merlins at one hit. Beautiful.

Per Ardua ad Everything,

D.

Thank goodness most of you miserable lot are out!

I was going to launch into a diatribe about how the vast majority of those I work with are still up for it, but you know what? I get the feeling it would a waste of time.

Crack on...

You know you have become a third rate Air Force when....
 

1. It has more capability gaps than capability.
2. It can't afford its own elementary training aircraft.
3. The rented elementary training aircraft fall to bits.
4. It can't afford to train its own QFIs.
5. It can't afford practice weapons for trainee fighter pilots.
6. It took the scrapping of its maritime role without a murmur - instead of Air Staff resigning en bloc.
7. It took the scrapping of its V/STOL role without a murmur - instead of Air Staff resigning en bloc.
8. It contracted its primary AAR needs to a civilian service company which has yet to acheive any AAR service.
9. It had to go cap in hand to MCCE to find some foreign tankers to take its whizzy new fighters on a simple 4-leg trail.
10. It can't afford military hospitals. Or bands... Or squadron events in the Officers' Mess.
11. It can't afford 'Air Clues' and its own newspaper is riddled with errors and inaccuracies.
12. It has all but stopped recruiting.
13. It "Hears what you say", but does nothing "Because there's no money". Or should that be 'will'?

You think that doing Electronic Warfare properly is just TFD :sad:

Bear

When more emphasis is put on running between two orange cones in a gymnasium every six months, rather than providing the resources to give us serviceable aircraft to do our job in.

When all officers below CAS have to justify - in writing - on each occasion - why they need a driver for a service vehicle and don't self-drive.

(You heard it here first). :(

During war studies at Sleaford in the late 1960’s, we were given the definition of a third world defence force.

It was one with more air marshals than squadrons, more admirals than ships, and more generals than regiments…..

Are the Tutors still grounded?

....when they change the logo and brand identity.

There is only one thing that marks an Air Force as Third Rate, and that's losing....

...and there's only one way to know that for sure, but by then it's too late to fix the problem.

The question is, are the threats less credible than the Air Force?

RLE

I'm still in. I'm still "up for it". I still find it a huge embarrassment that a once capable Air Force has to borrow tankers from another Air Force because the replacement for its own capable but old jets has failed to provide what it was contracted to do. Has to hire its training aircraft. Basically is a shadow of its former self:(

....When there are 16 E&D nominated personnel at one training establishment..
....When 80% of work is done on a simulator..
....When a reunion has to held in a local Hotel because the Mess is 'too expensive'..
....When 65% of service personnel at a single unit cannot pass their basic fitness test..
....When the above are'nt challenged because they run to one of the 16 E&D types...
....Pamphlets are constantly produced covering everything from 'Air Power' to 'How to talk to Minorities'..
....A standard Flying Programme today would have been classed as insufficient for trg purposes less than 10 years ago...
....A cancer of meaningless Management Speak..
....Bosses more focused on getting their MA than leading their people..

Jeez, I'm getting old....time for my nap.:sad:

"Per Ardua ad Astra" describes the Air force nicely then

Perhaps it should now be "Per Ardua ad Firma"

RLE

RLE

I'm still in. I'm still "up for it". I still find it a huge embarrassment that a once capable Air Force with the worlds best MPA aircraft and crews has to beg for MPA from our Allies because the requirement and need hasn't gone away and we're still an island race with SSBN's to protect! :(

You know you have become a third rate Air Force when....
 

People would rather leave the Service at their option point than accept promotion.

When anything to do with Personnel is referred to as a Human Resource issue :ugh:

I doubt whether many of the RAF police recruits were wiser than anyo...

Oh just too easy!

This is why we have those bl**dy awful diesel estates!

.....you rely on the TOTAL manning of the RN to help fill up Old Trafford. We filled it by ourselves in 1979.

You know you have become a third rate Air Force when....
 

The circuits and the LFAs are empty.