SILVER_FOX said:
Nah - the RAF are just bloody rubbish. Why do we even need them when both the Army and RN have their own capabilities? OK for the Nimrod, Hercs and the odd Puma lift but you could practically do most of this by civ contract these days.
Lets get shut of them. It will keep the wolves from the door in terms of "Defence reviews" for a while too. Bonus!
SF
The thing is, as far as I, (and a lot of my shipmates), are concerned there are 2 issues here;
The RAF are rubbish, and the RAF are rubbish!
They sound similar, but there are a few differences:
Firstly, they are dealing with an aircraft that is, as some pointed out a bomber, not a fighter, not like our own ex fuel-to-noise converter- the SHAR. So they're on back foot from the start, but then who was it who pushed for such a beast- not the FAA that's for sure. However, the crux of this problem still lies in wrong and poorly thought out acquisition, further constrained by small budgets. End of any sympathy for our crab friends.
Secondly, they are the self-proclaimed experts on all things aviation. However, their "best practises" procedures are consistently found to be lacking and their understanding of being in a military force seems somewhat at odds with what we in the Navy and our brethren in the Army think. On a recent visit to both Fleet HQ and JHC it became evident that RAF are out for only one thing themselves and their ever increasing empires. :evil:
In the past 18 years my attitude has changed completely from that of Joe Publics’ good impression of them to a much more cynical view, brought about by my own experiences and that of those both matelots and pongos alike.
A pongo mate out in Iraq in 04’ has said getting the crabs to do what they req’d when they req’d it was a constant battle, only fully realised when one of our Jungly SQNs took over half way through their tour and suddenly they were getting a service commensurate with their needs. I’ve heard of similar situations arising in Northern Ireland, (let’s face the Junglies got their name from because they were willing to help the Army out in the jungles of Borneo, when the RAF weren’t), and indeed whilst FIGS, many years ago we were pulled off our patrol around the islands to go and extract a pongo patrol at short notice. It turns out, when these wet and cold soldiers were brought onboard after 2 weeks in a Falklands winter, they’d already suffered the discomfort of having to take a 20 KM detour from their patrol to wait for a water re-supply by the crabs that never happened, (fortunately there was plenty of snow round) and then wait an extra couple of days a t the end for another crab helo for their return to MPA that again didn’t turn up- apparently on both occasions, the crabs had “something else come up†but didn’t think to tell anyone! Finally, and particularly relevant to this thread, whilst on a Defence College Sea day a few years back, a live firing demonstration was giving by a crab harrier and one of our own. The target was a splash target towed by a RFA. During the RAF display the safest place to be was on the aforementioned drogue! Then the SHAR turned up and caused it some minor damage!
So maybe there is some substance in what the Major was saying?
So SF, I whole heartedly agree with you, disband the RAF and share the spoils between us and the Army. An opinion that for me was well truly brought home by a paper written in the mid to late 90’s, the crux of which stated “the British Army should be a weapon propelled ashore, and subsequently supported by, the RNâ€. It made good reading and a lot of sense, (there was an edited version of it going around VL in the late 90’s- if anyone still has a copy could they post it, as mine went missing during rounds- TIA.
I didn’t mean to go on, but suffice to say the most useful, and successful things the RAF do is look after their own and PR.
They are individually decent enough people, but collectively appear to be narrow minded empire builders with delusions of adequacy!
Boy, do I feel better for that.
