Hawk, Tucano and RAF Valley face uncertain future?
Discussion
According to posts on other forums, it has been reported in the Sunday Times today that the RAF fast jet fleet is going to consist of just 48 Tornadoes and 72 Typhoons. Not sure whether this is operational aircraft or aircraft in total.
It has also been rumoured that only 10 Fast Jet pilots are to be trained each year and it would be cheaper to train them in Texas, putting Valley (who are losing their SAR training facility) at risk.
It does beg the question if there are so few pilots being trained what is the future for the Hawk, and Tucano fleets and their respective bases?
The Harrier is going in a couple of weeks, the "fully paid for" Nimrod has been cancelled (at a cost of a further £1 billion), the Sentinel is on borrowed time, and the Tornado fleet is being reduced.
Seems like the Coalition despite all their pre-election "not cutting front line services" hype, are systematically dismatling our military capability
It has also been rumoured that only 10 Fast Jet pilots are to be trained each year and it would be cheaper to train them in Texas, putting Valley (who are losing their SAR training facility) at risk.
It does beg the question if there are so few pilots being trained what is the future for the Hawk, and Tucano fleets and their respective bases?
The Harrier is going in a couple of weeks, the "fully paid for" Nimrod has been cancelled (at a cost of a further £1 billion), the Sentinel is on borrowed time, and the Tornado fleet is being reduced.
Seems like the Coalition despite all their pre-election "not cutting front line services" hype, are systematically dismatling our military capability
Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 28th November 14:24
anonymous said:
[redacted]
There have been times over the past few years when very few RAF or RN fast jet students were being put through Valley - the place being kept ticking over by training foreign students (and in particular, students from certain nations who wouldn't be keen to send them to the US instead).I know the Valley instructors I was flying with 3 or 4 years ago in the Yak were spending almost all of their time training Indian Air Force students - I understand from an export market perspective, maintaining the training capability in-house is actually fairly lucrative, even if the RAF students going through the facility are in the minority.
That isn't to say the activity has to remain at Valley though.
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