As a Max driver, I have to say I have done the runaway trim,mcas drill a few times. If you can handfly it isn't a problem.

Why this sudden interest in basing assets in Scotland you ask? Because if you're trying to plug the GIUK gap, the Home Counties are not the best place to base your ASW aircraft. If you've already decided Scotland is the best place for your ASW aircraft, it makes sense to locate your AEW&C aircraft there too given they are of a highly similar type in terms of support, as you already answered for yourself.

The P-8 isn't an ASW aircraft, it's a surveillance platform - according to OC CXX on the current Top Gun TV series.

Is she a fighter controller????

1. Wing Commander
2. Squadron Commander.
3 Fighter Controller.

Problem?

CG

"Why this sudden interest in basing assets in Scotland you ask? Because if you're trying to plug the GIUK gap, the Home Counties are not the best place to base your ASW aircraft. "

yet oddly for years the RAAF based most of its assets far away from the northern end of the country - presumably they were worried about Tasmania declaring UDI. And the British have the Corps of Naval Constructors in that industrial powerhouse of Bath.........................

Things don't always go where logic would dictate

She's the Officer Commanding so it doesn't matter.

I see she also did a tour on Ark Royal.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarah-mcdonnell-42a16783

So what's the deal with senior officers and LinkedIn accounts these days (note - this is not intended to be a criticism of the particular individual in this case).

In my day personal security was a big issue, we were told the Russians built up individual profiles on us based on sources such as the Air Force List, RAF News, local newspaper clippings, etc, and we were told/encouraged to make as little information as possible available in the public domain, not be photographed wearing Squadron badges, etc.

These days it seems that most senior RAF officers (far more senior than Wg Cdr) have LinkedIn accounts with their full service history - including their 3 years at Farnborough as project manager for reverse engineering captured UFO technology!! Is security now a dirty word Blackadder?

When the Minister at the top spends his/her time trying to get blanket PR coverage why would you expect those below to do anything different?

Because they aren't politicians but members of the military?

The Army's vehicle design folks based in Aldershot but their vehicle testing grounds all in Yorkshire
And the RM based in Plymouth but their then wartime role was to stiffen Norway's northern flank

This was the subject of a particularly brilliant Yes, Prime Minister episode "Man Overboard" (Series 2 Episode 1, broadcast 3rd December 1987 according to Wikipedia)
I knew somebody in BBC middle management at the time, and they said this was based on an actual government proposal, which was sunk by giving it to the Yes, Prime Minister writers as a script concept

Episode in question.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kgy89

It gets blurred at the top - you want to get one , you have to conform - or at least not sit in the corner with a holier-than-thou look on your face

I never send there was a problem. Not being of an ISTAR background I was suprised that the OC wasn't a pilot like every Sqn I've ever been on.

No need to be such a ballbag in your response.

You can tell a Fighter Pilot ... but you can't ... ....;):)

LFH

No no you got it wrong:
'You can always tell a fighter pilot, but you can't tell them much'. (Pronounced in a Yorkshire accent)

The four question marks kinda gave it away. Pretending now that it wasn't a dig is a bit shady...

CG

Not at all, genuine suprise.

There are precedents; I think the OC of the P8 Sqdn was a 'one winger' too.

So was Nav Nikki Thompson when she was OC 12 now Air Commodore, AOC 83 EAG. 'One winger' and incidentally female.

Get with the program people. There were Nav bosses of Herc and Nimrod Sqns back in the 80s, a mere 40 years ago!

.......and an excellent Nav boss of 25 Sqn Tornado F3 when they re-formed in the late 80s

I think I met a Buccaneer Nav boss on the beach at Gibraltar in the 80s...but it's hard to remember through the alcohol induced haze...

Did someone say female navigator Tornado squadron commander......

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...r-9969699.html

Fully aware of Nav OCs, never realised that a FC could be a Sqn OC.

There were Nav/Observer sqn commanders in WW2 and even an Air Gunner.. My first sqn, 33 (Javelins) had a Nav OC.

You can tell a fighter pilot ...
 

Thanks Chevvie

Never thought of it as ... - I thought it came from the same Music Hall as "Throw a Nickel on the Grass ..."

I didn't complete the verse in order to avoid causing any possible offence to the honourable poster.

NB 1. The 8 Squadron CO designate appears to be eminently well qualified for the job.
NB 2. My old dad was an 8 Squadron pilot about a century ago - "Uspiam et passim" - I don't think they had lady Crabs in those days. Boom Boom !

LFH

IOC now 2025, CAS blames Boeing



https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/raf-...for-e-7-delay/

It has to be right. The crew won't take just any galley.

Not the first FC to command 8 Sqn either

All very well, but the RAF accepted, or at least made no attempt to fight, a capability gap with the sale of the E3s to Chile et al. All that has happened is that the gap has got a bit bigger. Quelle suprise.

Boeing are continuing to try and dig themselves out of an enormous hole, admittedly of their own making. Despite what CAS might think, the UK's contract for 3 E7s is never going to be high on Boeing's priority list.

Looks like the UK finally got in first and right for once. NATO has announced they will be ordering 6 wedgetails for the NATO Awacs squadron to replace the E-3's

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_219907.htm

Perhaps the UK will thereby find a buyer for its excess radars?

And have no spare parts for the other three radars? We have a track record of poor 'spares' for our systems.

I'm not sure that having two spares for any particular item in the radar really fixes the system.

Think in the 80s there was an AEO Nimrod Sqn Cdr......

42 Sqn, RAF St Mawgan, Wg Cdr Alan Hicks 1977-80

YS

So the NATO AEWCF is going from a peak of 29 E-3s to a mix of 9 E-7s (inc. the 3 UK ones) and 4 E-3Fs (given the buy of new sims earlier this year I presume France is sticking with the E-3 for now).

Does this imply supplementing with additional as yet unspecified remotely-piloted or autonomous platforms?

Additional comment: The ratio of E-7 to E-3 is even lower that the UK - has the continent gone mad? An E-3 seems to have been a fairly constant presence along the Ukraine or Belorussian borders since Vlad's escapade started.

Yes, the E-7s are only the initial part of the NATO Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC) system, as per this graphic. Might explain the drop in airframe numbers, as you describe.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e9566ec858.jpg