New announcement on the sharepoint page allowing all uniformed staff to act as ammo escorts, not just officers. Sense!
[quote=“ACO Announcements”]Movement of Ammunition – Uniformed Escort
Air Command sought clarification of the policy for movement of ammunition and Def Sy has stated that in addition to VR(T) Officers, uniformed adult volunteers (adult ACO WOs and SNCOS) are able to provide the unarmed escort. SO2 Phys Sy is in the process of advising Parent Units accordingly. Local movements using WOs and SNCOs as escorts can restart on publication of this announcement.
The 50 mile limit however is unchanged and there is no exemption for .22 in ammunition.[/quote]
Unfortunately our local RAF station is beyond the 50 mile limit and therefore so are most of our ranges. Result Cadets quit to join the ACF where they can actually shoot.
As this is your first post, Welcome to Air Cadet Central.
If you have problems with ammunition, contact your wing shooting officer. They should be able to organise a team to do an “ammo drop” to units within your wing.
Same can be said if the range is away from unit.
I have also had our local RAF Station deliver ammunition when they service weapons.
No I think you are all missing the point. Our local armoury (over 50 miles away) won’t allow any uniformed staff to pick up or transport rifles or ammunition. It has to be done by them BUT they are over 50 miles away, so need a service escort which is unavailable weekends. Our Wing Shooting Officer is as exasperated by the whole thing as the rest of us. Even if we could pick up that is a one and a half hour journey to said RAF station and a further one and a half hour journey back (and then some to the range). Plus a repeat upon end ex. Oh and that is before we even start to shoot. Let’s say we meet at the range for 9am and shoot until last round at 4pm. That’s 7 hours plus 6 hours journey time meaning that we are operating outside limits. Great hey! Anyway sorry to sound so negative for a first post but we are seriously loosing Cadets to the ACF because of this one.
:mad:
Just edited to clarify I am refering to full bore. Not rim-fire as our Sqn is lucky enough to be inside the 50 mile limit but the full bore range isn’t. Hense ACF can fire full bore but ATC can’t.
Locally I have seen very limited impact on shooting following the new restrictions on transport. The unit is just outside the 50 mile limit, but the armoury staff are more than happy to bring additional ammunition down to the unit for us to use on our indoor range. They have linked this with servicing as well as an interest lecture, which the cadets really enjoyed.
Full Bore we have conducted happily on the station Barrack Range as there is no restriction as the ammunition isn’t leaving the station.
Our long ranges are within the limit from the station, so just required the 4 DG trained uniformed staff to transport the arms. When moving large amounts for a wing run camp 150 miles away from the station, this has been prepositioned by the RAF for as at the Camp that we were occupying.
Surely the ACF have the same issues as yourselves, why not see if you can get ammunition positioned at an Army Camp and then you collect from there for your shoots. Or even more out there why not liaise with the ACF and share the range and ammunition.
Both the ACF & ATC are excellent organisations that give young people an experience they won’t get elsewhere, but there is no harm in being a little purple, we will still be doing RAF Drill & Teaching Airmanship on parade evenings, which is what gives us our own identity.
Why not buddy up? Either with the ACF themselves - or with a neighbouring Wing? We’ve managed to run range days in both instances without too much grief - and both run very successfully. Avoids the 50mile issue - and both parties chip in with all the relevant qualifications and personnel.
Trigger time for all cadets and a nice bit of joined up working for your RFCA to say “how good they are”. Happy days.
The ACF are NOT bound by the same rules and even if they were it wouldn’t affect them has they have plenty of places within a 50 mile radius with which to store rifles and ammunition. Namely, Army Reserve Centres and training bases. Sadly the ATC by comparison isn’t so lucky. There is only one RAF station in the whole of North Wales and that is literally the other end of the country. I also know from my CCF hat that this is an RAF thing as the Army section are unaffected. Unfortunately my CCF RAF section only get to shoot with my ATC Squadron. So double whammy. I did approach the CCF Army section but they didn’t want to get involved with the RAF’s “politics”.
As for the ACF, well they are doing very nicely scooping up lots of disaffected ex-ATC Cadets as our Wing’s numbers steadily decline. So why spoil it?
