I wondered, with the wide awareness and cover of our members here on ACC, if anyone had heard any updates regarding the planned resurrection and stand-up of No.502 (Ulster) Squadron RAuxAF?
There was a public announcement about this somewhere (will need to remember where I read it), but: any more info heard by anyone?
Even if the RAuxAF doesn’t get any bigger by itself, it forms an ever-larger percentage of the Air Forces of the Crown as the regular Air Force draws-down (isn’t it meant to be 31,500 by 2015? Or is that wrongly-remembered?)
I’d not read anything about a new unit for St Athan, but the North-Western plan sounds a little familiar. What I did read about though was the creation of a new big aeromed flight being raised within 600 Sqn.
And for 502- I just assumed they’d be an Aldergrove version of 606 (in an HSS mode), but I’ve seen no role/task announcement.
wilf_san
ps perhaps I should have asked over on Prune, or the Goat, but I’m very rarely ever there. ACC’s my home forum…
pps tango_lima, I’m intrigued. If your intel can be confirmed as being safer for public consumption than a Tescoburger, it’ll be very interesting to hear…
Not trying to sound too sneaky-beaky, just don’t want to end up getting into trouble… :lol:
Googling shows me that it is out there in the media that more than one RAF bigwig has been talking about the RAF sticking it out in Afghanistan for a lot longer than 2014…certain people definitely want to keep certain options open. What actually happens will affect what roles/capabilities/etc the Air Force is focused on after 2014 and in the run up to 2020.
That’s reason one and a bit of a longer term view. In the very short term (the next 18 months or so) the Air Force suddenly wants lots of Auggie Gunners again, having started to scale back the role of RAuxAF Regiment over the last couple of years as commitments decreased and the regular Regiment saw more recruits due to the economy. This means that certain units have gone from being on the point of being effectively re-roled* to ramping up the training again. I have seen the reasons for this talked about by other people, but I’ve not seen it released from an official source, so I’ll let someone else explain it.
*although technically not really, another favourite one for blowing the minds of non-Auggies
[quote=“tango_lima”]This means that certain units have gone from being on the point of being effectively re-roled*…
*although technically not really, another favourite one for blowing the minds of non-Auggies[/quote]Yep, even back in ‘the day’ I used to hear references to “re-re-roled”, “un-re-roled” and (my favourite) “rollbacked role back”
[quote=“uivenger/thetopcat69”]614 (County of Glamorgan) Sqn…returns from the ashes for St Athan planned to be fully operational by 2014[/quote]Great news!!
My latest gen re. 611 (West Lancashire) Sqn is that it will maintain an Office at Aintree Barracks, but that ultimately it will be based at RAF Woodvale.
No timescale for open recruitment yet though, or what trades, but it will be multi-role.
And although I’d heard this general intention stated before, it’s really good to read it in print with a bit of detail attached:
wilf_san
ps I’ve a specific question to ask of people following this thread. During my busy life I’m aware that either late last year or early this year there have been indications via the media from HMG that there are likely to be further defence reductions (viz the regular personnel cuts including some compulsory redundancies). Yet I’m also certain that within the last 4 weeks I’ve heard the SoS Def quoted as saying that defence can look forward to an investment phase in 2015. Can someone please do me a huge favour and confirm that these two apparently-contradictory stratregies are actually in place? And an even bigger favour: can someone also explain the absolute logic in this (nb I don’t mean that you need to believe/support the strategy yourself, can you just give me the overall reasoning being applied by the policy-makers?)
[quote=“FR2020”]
RAF Reserves
B.9. There are 2 reserve air forces; the Volunteer Reserve component – the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and the
Regular Reserve component – the RAF Reserve, which comprises individuals with previous Regular
service, as well as Sponsored Reserves.
B.10. The Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF) consists of 20 squadrons or flights - principally providing air crew,
force protection, movements, medical, intelligence, media and flight operations capabilities. RAuxAF
units are mainly located on RAF bases; their outputs are integrated with those of regulars. Under
Future Reserves 2020 the RAuxAF trained strength will increase to 1,800 and 5 new squadrons will be
formed and new capability developed in cyber. It will continue to operate as it does today, augmenting
the regular force as individuals or in small groups. As a vital component of the Whole Force, Reserves
will continue to be used at home and abroad to deliver a range of Air tasks on short and long term
operations, as they have done on operations such as Libya and Afghanistan respectively.[/quote]
ppps Again, constantly throughout the document as is the case everwhere else, all references to the “RAF Reserve” only means ex-regular reservists. There remains also the double confusion that although recruiting for the RAuxAF is being done under the branding of RAF Reserves, this isn’t mentioned anywhere within the Consultation document…yet it does clearly-restate that the Territorial Army is to be rebranded as “Army Reserves”…The next step is expected to be in March/April, presumably with tabled legislation to enable FR2020. I wonder if it’ll be known as RFA2013?
pppps Anyone on ACC fancy their chances at applying to become an RAuxAF/RAF Reserves part-time Cyber-warrior?
[quote=“bti” post=3294]My latest gen re. 611 (West Lancashire) Sqn is that it will maintain an Office at Aintree Barracks, but that ultimately it will be based at RAF Woodvale.
No timescale for open recruitment yet though, or what trades, but it will be multi-role.
Cheers
BTI[/quote]
Aintree Barracks is to become the NW Recruiting & Selection Centre (Not the official title) for the RAF. They’re moving out of Manchester and other cities and putting the majority of staff in there to run selections etc…
They’ve done a similar thing in Newcastle Under Lyme taking over a large TA Centre instead of highstreet recruiting offices…
Woodvale is pretty small so I’d be interested in the roles of 611? Any ideas?
[quote]Leeroy wrote:
Aintree Barracks is to become the NW Recruiting & Selection Centre (Not the official title) for the RAF. They’re moving out of Manchester and other cities and putting the majority of staff in there to run selections etc…[/quote]
Roger - I was down there a few weeks ago with work …its a pretty good set up actually, the old TAC is massive, so there’s plenty of space to do all sorts of selection work as well as recruitment/outreach work.
[quote]wilf_san wrote:
Again, constantly throughout the document as is the case everwhere else, all references to the “RAF Reserve” only means ex-regular reservists. There remains also the double confusion that although recruiting for the RAuxAF is being done under the branding of RAF Reserves, this isn’t mentioned anywhere within the Consultation document…[/quote]
I think we’ve had this discussion elsewhere re. branding… AFAIK the “RAF Reserves” branding incorporates - for a largely external audience - both the RAuxAF and RAFR. It’s certainly easier on the man in the street from a marketing POV. However, as a brand/marketing exercise, its clearly aimed maintly at recruiting PTVR RAuxAF rather than ex-regular FTRS RAFR.
