Requirement to upgrade is not strictly our fault. All of our wing’s hubs should have weapons by the end of the year.
L98 shooting and training was generally pretty centralised at certain locations anyway, so all we’re doing is that but with the 144 - and should be more regularly that L98 ever was.
L103s - again, not really our fault.
L144s going into hubs would be a far greater problem if we hadn’t also rolled out air rifles - that units CAN hold for themselves. So there is still the potential for on-unit shooting of some description. (“It’s not the same” I hear people cry.)
So it is settling, because there is progress being made and everyone knows what the plan is. It’s far from done, but it will get there.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that some of these problems are not of our own making, just that at the moment, certainly in my experience, shooting is harder than it has been for a while, with the possibility that it will get harder.
I agree that air rifle shooting is a good way to keep cadets shooting, but not everyone has a Sqn building suitable for a range - my main hall is a shape and size that cannot accommodate a range.
Equally, not every unit has a .22 range. It’s swings and roundabouts and as much of a lottery as it was before. I’m not fully versed, but you would surely have options to go the TOPL route to create temporary outside Air Rifle ranges though - it’s a pain, but it’s an option never available for .22.
I do get what you’re saying - it’s not a benefit to you in your situation. It’s just there have always been units that have been better or worse off in certain aspects. You are right about shooting being harder, but my view is that we are coming out the other side.
For us, we have a range on site and an armoury - the only local unit with them. We’re going to be a hub so we win while other units have to come to us, but in reality we’re just reverting to the status quo of a few years back!
Conversely, sports and FT has been a pain in the backside for us as we’re in the centre of a town - I know of a unit located within the boundary fence of an airfield and have historically enjoyed its freedom. I can think of another that has easy access to playing fields.
I actually run a unit with a .22 range on site, and have been told we will become a hub armoury, so less of a woe is me post, more of a reflection of what I see happening in our wing.
My perspective comes from my experience as a fairly active RCO, SAAI, and coach. The loss of L103s at a local level mean L98 training courses have ground to a halt. Partly because there are no weapons to WHT staff members on locally, partly because of staff availablity to get to our local RAF station to get tested, and partly because of the cost of moving weapons around (civvy run armoury have reduced the amount of overtime they are willing to fund).
The lack of L103s has meant that on every range day, instead of a bus load of WHTd cadets rocking up, and cracking on, we have to spend value range time testing, and in some cases, providing refresher training.
The same can be said for L144s, although this will ease when the hubs become operational, and the out off date staff have been retested.
It all adds up to much less shooting now than, say 5 years ago, with the potential for it to get worse.
But still, we haven’t dealt that hand for ourselves…
I think we’ve done relatively ok for regular Wing level weapons training on AR and L98, but yes there are various shuffles for WHTs for staff and cadets in the run up to events and on the days of shoots.
You say there’s the potential for it get worse, but there’s also the potential for it to get better again. We are seeing more staff qualify as Air Rifle RCOs and getting Rifles on their units, L144s are coming back, greater/easier access to staff courses… it’s not all rosey, but there is light.
I’m not saying it will, but if your or any wing appears to be under-performing in a year or 2 compared to others, I’m sure that questions will be raised and the models used in other wings examined.
We could possibly see an increase in SA (SR) 07 holders and SAAIs as people see the benefit of holding them once the 144s are back available again and we can get our hands on weapons more regularly. That could, in turn, improve the currency and WHT situation. It should certainly see an increase in training and shooting at least up to 144 with it then falling to wings to arrange L98 training and shoots and making use of the qualified bodies they have.
But anyway… that’s still not truly Dawn’s mud to receive (and imagine if we hadn’t brought in Air Rifles before all the kerfuffle with those other 3). You could argue some blame for the initial delay in L144 roll out (before they were all taken back again), but I don’t believe she tested and signed off on the weapon personally. And to think, I was trying not to defend her too vehemently…
Frankly we need to lose the FTRS rubbish, 2 years and ta ta so they can’t get too embedded and feel the need to fiddle. We need someone from a flying or engineering background, we do not under any circumstance need another adminner. Both of the ones we have had have proved themselves inept, as although we have lots of admin, it’s not what we are about. Whoever it is, bin the reliance on SM, just to pretend you’re popular.
I think the problem with a new one will be trying to change things, do too much, too quickly and no real idea how it was all going to come together. As we have had for the last 10 years. Let things bed-in and fund them fully or don’t change them full stop.
While many of the problems haven’t been of her own doing (flying, gliding and shooting) what I think the lengthening timescales with total inaction to resolve these shows, just as how low Air Cadets are in the importance list and just how impotent and how far down the food chain CAC is, despite the rhetoric. If they can’t or aren’t able to change things or seriously influence things for the better, do we really need one at all, poncing around like they can, hoovering up a tidy salary? I liken speaking to CAC like speaking to my MP or local councillor (both of whom I quite like as people), they say all the right things but they know, you know they don’t have the capacity to actually do anything. CAC should turn up say ‘good show’ and move along and no more.
I would go so far as to say do not have anyone from an armed services background. The people we get have little or no knowledge of Air Cadets and what we do, day in, day out, despite having been in the RAF for 30 years, that having someone with no military background can’t be any different. It could be better as they would be a fresh pair of eyes.
The move from MOD Civil Service to FTRS was , as I understand it, forced on the Air Cadets. Up until 2000 ish most of the managerial posts in HQAC and in Regions and Wings were Retired Officer posts; after RAF service the individuals were employed as civil servants and tended to stay on for 10 years or so from 55 to 65 (with appropriate rank). In the early 2000’s the MOD Civil Service changed their conditions of service to make the posts Civil Service with a Civilian Component (CC) commission; different name but no real change. In 2008, with no prior warning and with no reference to HQAC, the MOD Civil Service made the decision that as disabled individuals could not be commissioned this was incompatible with Civil Service Terms and Conditions and so the Civilian Component commission was no more. The prospect was that the only senior uniformed post in the RAF Air Cadets would be the Commandant . Incidentally the Comdt was a full time RAF post and had been filled by 2 Comdts that had not taken it in as a retirement tour. The result, both were moved at short notice to fill what were deemed to be higher profile operational RAF posts to meet urgent service requirements; Commander British Forces Falkland Islands and national NATO Military Representative respectively.
The only option at the time which enabled senior leaders of the Air Cadets to retain commissioned and uniformed status ( and for the Comdt post to have some stability) was to go FTRS ( a 4 year renewable contract).
Now that the CFC has been established separate from HM Forces there seems no reason why individuals could not be employed on Civil Service terms and Conditions and commissioned irrespective of any disability. That would therefore seem to be an alternate approach.
There is a separate discussion to be had over an individual’s background and experience to determine suitability for senior admin posts within the RAFAC. In many of my comments in this forum I use the phrase" be careful what you wish for" , if an individual is appointed with no experience of the RAF it is doubtful that they will be effective around the meeting/conference table when fighting the corner for the resources that secure the long-term future of the organisation. The quality of their decision making below that level will, I am sure, continue to provoke lively debate.
Agreed. Regardless of if you think CAC is to any degree toothless or rebuffed at that table, you need experience and knowledge of the kinds of people sat around you and the mechanisms that they work within.
Personal networks and relationships matter - as we all know from Sqn level and in the outside world, this is the stuff that greases the wheels - putting a civvy with no either experience or friendships into a Mess night at Cranwell, or High Wycombe, or Upavon is going to be a disaster for how senior officers see the ACO, and the help they are willing to give it.
It’s also, as mentioned above, about having the experience of dealing at a senior and working level within the military: one of the shooting debacles was made worse for the ACO by a meeting being held at Upavon, but because TG3(?) didn’t grasp the significance of that meeting, they didn’t go, and the ACO’s voice wasn’t heard.
At CAC level, that failure to understand what was going to be discussed would be disastrous.
AVM Chris Luck would be ideal, but for the fact that it would be a demotion to become CAC.
That said he was always pro ATC, supporting anything and everything which benefited Cadets. He was fully acquainted with some of the idiots who sit behind desks. (Either him or his brother as hith are aviators)
AVM Luck stood me a beer once despite my protests, whilst others including McCafferty, have only managed the cessation of chocolate ration.
And mention of shooting a) what good is it having an HQAC approved indoor range (third donated air weapon put on hold) due to HQAC/Wing intransigence, and having a different plan, thus undoing all the work of the CFAVs and the Civilian Committee.
Also I believe that the new weapons are useless, because of poor quality workmanship and design.
Whoever takeovers, needs to review the entire situation before damage is irreparable, but talk ie consult, the people who have to deliver the cadet experience.
Budgetary constraints will always be upper most, especially if the Royal Navy wants some more boats to help protect our economy.
Looking at his Twitter he has retired so moving down a rank for a retirement posting probably isn’t such a bad thing. (I believe we had a Commandant Air Cadets who became a Regional Commandant on retirement).
