RAF RIP?

[Oz647]

It would be a shame to see the RAF go but it's a very expensive part of the forces.

I don't think a lot of people realise the extent to which UK plc is going to need to make cutbacks to address the financial situation.

Top6, this is not aimed at you this is just answering the question in general.

Maybe we should start by not sending 20,000,000 to Haiti or the millions sent to Iraq to rebuild what we destroyed. Don't get me wrong I feel very sorry for them but I feel just as sorry for the lads buying their own kit because the government wont supply it or the people who had their houses destroyed in the floods or the people living on the streets or the old people who choose between heating or food in the winter. Maybe we should start by cutting MP's wages and expenses. Making sure that all these MPs forced to step down at the next election due to dodgy expense claims, don't get big fat golden handshakes. Now that would save us a few quid.

I find it strange that the Uk can always find money to help others but never to help our own.

Rant over

[crownjaggie]

As a former member of the RAF for 32 years, and until the end of 2008 employed as a civilian at RAF Kinloss. Where if I had stayed I would be unemployed very shortly, due to the ineptitude of British Aerospace and their inability to ever achieve a target date for new products (mainly aircraft) entering service. I agree that there are many functions of the three armed forces that are wasted duplicity, and like some others can see advantages in centralising and combining some of these functions. The Harrier Force has been a joint Navy and RAF force since round about the turn of the century with lots of RAF guys doing a great deal more sailing than they expected when they enlisted.

Having opted to work in the middle east to enable me to bring forward my retirement I am able to see at first hand life in a muslim country. With six prayer calls every day, one of the few excuses for not attending the mosque is travelling. As an outsider I try to avoid the roads at prayer time as they are always heaving. Not all Saudis are radicals and many wish they had the personal freedom we take for granted in the west.

A much greater saving for the country and military would be to clear out the layers and layers of MOD who contribute nothing to the nations defence, but sucessfully delay every project they involve themselves in and then reward themselves with large bonuses "for a job well done"