The RAF doesn’t need to wear camouflage uniforms any more than the RN does: the days of expeditionary deployments to austere bases ended with the defeat of and withdrawal from Afghanistan of our armed forces. Militarised liberal intervention is not a government policy anymore.
The RAF now operates only from properly built up airbases in safe and secure countries like Romania, Estonia, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands. Not even the RAF Regiment patrols outside the wire anywhere these days, and the RAF Police never have in their history. RAF tradespeople haven’t done Guard or Augmentation Force duties on even UK airbases since the MPGS took over the guard rooms around 20 years ago. The RAF have never had any militarised Search and Rescue units, either. They’ve relied on the USAF to provide SAR cover for air operations.
In fact a blue/grey uniform is better camouflage than a green one in such an urban environment as a permanent airbase. The Berlin Brigade of Cold War days had blue urban combat uniforms.
Not that I’m aware of. But it would be good if we could start getting some cold weather gear. Even if we get a deal to get it issued to units rather than individuals, then we can loan it out as needed, then collect back in.
Well I wonder what I’ve been doing then sat on guard over the numerous points in my career.
But they deffo did do their heat illness training though. I was allowed to wear my bush hat one day when it was really hot. I didn’t, because that’s not professional.
It’s an admission of guilt by HQAC & HQ Region that they’ve failed to keep cadet infrastructure up to the minimum safe standards and that cadets thus may be exposed unduly to the cold weather even inside.
Cold Injury Training is part of the mandatory ACTO99 training; may be individual has been stopped from participating because they have failed to complete within a reasonable timescale
If it is a region approved event, then surely it needed approval at least 1-2 weeks before - or at least the back and forth comments between the unit and the region requesting amendments, further info or files. Had this been looked at early in the process, the staff member could easily have completed this in 2-3 hours max.
Or was it an event planned and approved locally which region decided to look at on the day it started and decided to cancel?
There may have been an opportunity to swap that staff member with another or have them complete the training before they were involved. Going straight to cancel before even letting them fix the problem seems archaic.
Any why cancel rather than just not approve? It means that all the SMS work has to be done again instead of tweaking.
It would be interesting to know what the event was, what level was it at (Sqn/Wing etc), had it already been previously approved, when was it for and how much notice did they get for cancellation?
Had the person been advised they needed to complete the training by Sqn/Wg/Region and it was ignored?
Yes, now I’ve just checked the MPGS website: they are based at 23 RAF stations.
You don’t need to wear a cammo uniform for manning the station main gate: when I served at RAF Laarbruch in the early 1990s we, the RAF Regt, would man the sangar with a L85 rifle wearing the old pre-CS95 green working dress, and the RAF Police wore the No2 uniform. We must have done the job alright, because the IRA or Red Army Faction never attacked that airbase.
The presence of MPGS at a station does not mean that no aviators have to go on guard. MPGS are the specialists and provide guard commanders, etc, but aviators still make up the numbers.
Thanks for the clarification of the situation regarding the MPGS, Flight. I haven’t been on a RAF base for several years now: they’re a critically endangered species in my part of the country.
Good to hear that the time-honoured RAF tradition of Stagging On for a week at a time is still alive and well by comparison, though.
