Astra Clothing Programme

“Hello, ma’am, I’ve come about the boiler”

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Hey. Get off my browsing history

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Yeap this one

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There are some aspects of RNPCS we would definitely do well to copy. The navy blue colour is not one of them.

Better a dark grey then, or perhaps some sort of USAF style cam colouring?

Digital camo? Very cyber.

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Doubles-up for #SpaceForce.

You’ll be thanking me in the year 3000, when I save the service from having to reinvent your uniform again!

The Finnish Defence Forces’ battle dress was mid-grey in WWII, a bit like what should have been the standard grey of the Confederate Army of the American Civil War: Red Army uniforms were brown, and German ones dark grey-green. Maybe the Luftwaffe blue-grey? :thinking:

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Possibly, or we could just bite the bullet and go MTP.

Folk will whinge about the public confusing the ATC with the ACF, but the truth is they do that when the cadets are dressed all in blue - journalists can’t tell that a C-17 belongs to the RAF and not the Army even when it’s got ‘Royal Air Force’ written on the side in 6ft letters.

You may as well throw snowballs at the sun.

Go MTP, get the financial benefit of tagging onto the far larger MOD order than for something blue, and use that saving to get a pool of softies, waterproofs, and a decent TRF.

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Not to mention the savings to cadets in only having to buy boots not boots and shoes - it adds up over the years.

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That is never going to happen, as RAFAC provides the ‘blue footprint’ in the community that the shrinking RAF no longer can.

Why?

We are mostly MTP now anyway.

I haven’t worn blues except on promotions courses and at cadets. I’ve not worn blues in a work capacity outside of those instances for about 4 years.

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Whereas I only wear MTP for one day every two years for IRT Mod. 1 or for cadets.

Which is why we need an identifiably RAF blue form of practical working dress: so that people in the same service can share a uniform that works for all (most: some still need MTP for genuine camouflage reasons).

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My understanding is that lots of regular areas within the RAF are going green permanently. Possibly where working with the Army (joint / operationally-focussed units in particular).

Others of course push heavily for blues, but there’s a clear desire across much of the service to just wear what is comfortable and practical.

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That’ll do.

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TRFs, beret colours, cap badges, stable belts, etc, is how the various regiments and corps distinguish between each other within the Army. A separate service should have more to set it apart, as the RN does.

Edit: Plus that patch means nothing to anyone on the outside. I’ve had RAF veterans fail to recognise it.

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So do we.

And yeah, you’d probably get some veterans failing to recognise it, AFAIK it’s reasonably recent.

But to be honest, as Angus put:

Worse things to worry about. It’s all combined ops anyway now, what does it matter I look like a soldier when I’m cutting around a land TLB area? To be honest, the hair and beard is a give away that I’m not… But that’s another issue.

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IIRC the Tactical Air Forces in WW2 Europe were issued with khaki battle dress rather than blue, presumably for better camo on the ground or ease of supply (I also heard due to anti RAF feeling especially if captured behind German lines, but not sure if that was true). So plenty of precedent for ‘greens’ for expeditionary forces.

Now expeditionary doesn’t apply to us. But the idea of designing a whole new ‘working’ dress seems daft when the existing No2, though not great, is already there and many of the issues with it (for us and the regulars) could be solved by more wearing of No3, which as @Horriblelittletechie says is already happening.

I think the Army got rid of their barrack dress (No2 equivalent) in favour of PCS trousers and the barrack shirt?

They haven’t formally gotten rid of it, but in practice they rarely wear it and dress as you have described instead (even in an office environment, when giving press briefings Whitehall / Downing Street, etc.)

Ah perhaps it is just no longer issued to the AR?