All commercial officers belong to the Cabinet Office and it is they, not MOD, that let HMG’s contracts of this scale. That’s not to say the requirement setting doesn’t rest with MOD, but even that has to be agreed by the commercial types and can be changed by them. That’s how you exert central fiscal authority in the UK these days. I don’t agree with it, but it seems we’re stuck with it.

I know it’s fashionable to trot out the ‘MOD can’t contract for toffee’ mantra, but in truth MOD (literally) can’t contract at all in this case.

Credit (or discredit if that’s even a thing) where it is due?

Just because they’re at Abbey Wood doesn’t mean they are owned by MOD. All commercial officers, who are the only ones with the delegations to sign contracts, are part of Crown Commercial Services.

I’m not going to address everything you said but I do have two points.

Firstly, flying pay has been called Recruitment and Retention Pay for years now. The powers that be are doing their level best to get rid of it but soon enough they may find the true meaning of the saying ‘no bucks, no Buck Rogers’. Maybe the RAF need to accept that pilots are a specialisation that need to be paid more than others of the same rank. There I said it.

Secondly, the RAF (and the Navy in their own way) got rid of loads of students back in 2010. Aside from the poor students that had their dreams crushed the whole episode left a very bitter taste across a far broader spectrum of people. It also left a bubble that worked its way through the system.

Is it any coincidence that we have faced a pilot and particularly a QFI shortage over the last few years? Those pilots would all have been well into their second and third tours by now.

BV

Which bit? Carillion? Patisserie Valerie? HMV? Lehman Brothers? I could go on, but I imagine you get the point.

The ‘commerce is always right idea’ is wrong. I wish the world were as simple as it is in the minds of those who say ‘if only they just did this...’. Regrettably, much of our world is replete with interactive, not systematic complexity.

This will come as a blow to those who believe they know all of the factors that obtain, and also to those who believe all the factors are knowable. It just ain’t so. There is no simple binary cause-effect relationship in a lot of things, no algorithm that just requires a couple of numbers to be applied to it to get the invariably right answer.

That’s not to excuse waste, which people should be rightly concerned about and which does require people to be incentivised to avoid and sanctioned when they make an egregious mistake (Just Culture anyone?). However, don’t assume that just because something hasn’t worked well that the outcome was predictable at the point the decision was made.

You think that doesn’t happen anyway?! Unfortunately you then have to give back sorties flying red air for the benefit of those you’re flying against (= less time rehearsing your own tactics in a climate of reduced flying hours). Unless you’re suggesting that our standard threats should be AMRAAM-firing US-made F-jets?

With their Block 52 F16s?

I mean this in the most polite way possible but thank God you’re not in charge of manning!

Let’s say your plan of only paying flying pay whilst in a flying role came to fruition. How would you persuade any pilot to fulfil a ground based role if to do so would cause him/her an enormous pay cut?

Aside from promotion which requires, rightly or wrongly the need to complete ‘broadening’ jobs outside of the normal flying routine there are some ground based jobs that need the input of a pilot.

If an OC PSF (just an example that everyone can relate to) were able to deliver simulator training, provide aircraft SME inputs or teach ground school (as a few quick examples off the top of my head) then maybe your plan would have merit. I think the reverse is probably true but let’s not get into that right now.

Doctors who become consultants step away from the day to day routine of ward rounds etc to focus on the bigger picture. Would you pay them less because they spend less time in the ward? I hope you can understand my analogy.

Also, once again, it is not ‘flying pay’ and hasn’t been for years. RAF pilots do not get sector pay like an airline pilot based on the number of flights they partake in. Pilots receive RRP. A Flt Lt salary without RRP would not retain anybody who is a qualified pilot. Even the lowliest airline can beat that.

I’m sure I am coming across as precious to some people but since you brought up the civilian sector then think how the civilian sector treats pay. Individuals are paid appropriately for their experience. If there is demand then pay is good. Pilots are currently in huge demand in the RAF.

I know it is anathema to some but an individual who has received years of expensive training and possesses the unique skill sets of a military pilot needs to be remunerated correctly.

Before I get the ‘me, me, me’ banter I know that every trade can argue their own worth (ATC’ers are a great example) but I am a FJ pilot. I’ll stick to fighting my own battles for now.

BV

A point raised earlier does warrant further investigation.

If one were to imaginatively and collaboratively amass all the DACT / affil requests from neighbouring Air Forces plus USAFE - you might find that mutual provision of Red Air would work. Savings made by not tasking F-5, early F-16 or (woeful) Hawk to do the job may even allow for a small uplift in CFT.

Of course - it would rely on everyone pulling their weight and adopting good behaviours.

I don’t subscribe to the view that providing Red Air is inherently bad. I agree that you need a fair share of Blue but with a bit of imagination you can get a lot out of a Red Air sortie.

Perhaps Air just needs to set up a Combat Air dating agency using the EAG which is a good 12metres from the front door.

Wonderful bit of logic.

We acknowledge that only folk with your skill set can do your job - we should know, we wrote the spec. However, because you’re adding value, but not doing the specific activity that made you valuable, we are going to reduce your package. Based on single digit millions to train you and a saving of approx £20 a day we will plan on saving siro 0.1% of the cost to train you per annum. There is a risk that some will outflow but so long as this is below 1 in a thousand our maths stands. We expect you to be happy and remain in the organisation until pension point which we’ve just moved further away.

BVRAAM,
Maybe, but beggars can’t be choosers. An amended display is better than no display, and bean counters would doubtless resist another type on the books purely to display (unless it was very cheap........).

Nothing to do with TD now working for Aeralis, surely? :ok:

Does anyone know how much of a factor RAFAT was/ is in the ASDOT story?