Back in the day when us common cadets could get on SharePoint, there was a section about overseas annual camps, namely to places like RAF Akrotiri, or Sennelager Training Camp. Do these still go ahead? I have been a cadet for nearly 4 years now, and although some of it was admittedly lost due to covid, I would have thought we would’ve heard something about them if they were still around. The only extra thing could find about them was a youtube video made by cadets who went on some, but they all seem to be pre-covid, so is this another case like the parachuting badge, stopped and then pulled after we all came back to face-to-face activities? Hopefully, someone knows a little more about all this, so many thanks for any information regarding it.
Other than IACE, I don’t remember seeing any mention of overseas camps for years. Post-COVID perhaps there are opportunities to relaunch them where there is an RAF presence e.g. Cyprus, Gibraltar. We struggle enough with getting capacity on UK RAF stations though!
both of these opportunities i only ever hear about with minimal notice as a last minute space has come available but they tend to be looking for a female CFAV with FMT600 D1 and RCO.
from a CFAV i have no clue how to get on these camps, don’t recall seeing any calling notice let alone about Cadets…
I agree i haven’t seen anything this side of Covid-19 but as camps is not my thing or area of responsibility I may well have seen them and skipped over them
Gib town is a bit of a tip, and the station is pretty small - I think you’d be bored rigid by day 6…
Cyprus is great.
Nothing in mainland Europe.
Ascension Island?
MPA - 3 days in the air…
The future is exercises, not station camps. Could the RAF take cadets to the air Policing tasks in Estonia or Iceland?
There’s exercises all over Europe all the time - little gangs of cadets going on each one is the way.
CCF are out in Cyprus, or about to.
Thinks it’d probably more locally organised things now except IACE -military accommodation is at a premium. There’s squadrons that do France, Belgium, Canada - adventure training in various places, or charity trips I think still happen. There’s a whole acto on taking cadets overseas.
The camps do happen, mostly CCF at the moment and some independent trips from within the Regions that are associated to the overseas territories.
COVID and Ops has put a bit of limitations on it up to this year again but they will come back I’m sure.
There was also a pause in overseas expeds from Corps Expedition Adviser during covid. I don’t recall seeing a “pause over” notification… But given there’s an AT event in Canada soon, I’m assuming it has…
Akrotiri might also have been a little distracted the past couple of years with things a little closer to home than when we were previously a little excitable ops wise…
Edit: Actually, that’s not true. I forgot about Syria.
Maybe just more care and attention dur to a bigger player on the field.
They have been busy.
Airbridge to Al Udeid, Shader, Herrick/Toral and other places.
Then Pitting, the more recent Eastern Africa evacs, other stuff.
Rather busy station. But a bit weird, considering there are squadies guarding one end of the airfield earning a medal for Shader, whilst the MT section delivering supplies etc to the Shader det on the other side of the airfield aren’t getting it.
Very odd place.
Thanks for all the responses, I know some local sqns have held overseas trips to Belgium and France after COVID, so I might start to ask local staff then. Although funding and staffing will likely be an issue, my wing didn’t make it to RIAT this year due to those issues, and being Northern, we might miss out on some other opportunities * cough “national” muster cough *
There will be another muster for you at some point - lots of wings weren’t involved in the national muster.
For trips abroad they have to be self funded including the vehicles you take (you can’t use white fleet), so it’ll be full cost events but nothing stopping fundraising, sponsorship or grants to help with the funds side of things!
My old unit recently did a battlefields trip. We had to pay for everything ourselves.
Can I ask what kind of costings are units looking at for overseas trips?
I know this is a ‘how long is a piece of string?’ question, but how do you gauge both value and this is too much?
Is it a very small proportion of units that do these trips - units with either fantastic funding, or a cohort with well off parents?
Are these trips built from the start to take most of the Sqn, or from inception do the leaders know that there’s only going to be perhaps a third who could stump up the cash?
I was discussing a recent CCF trip to Cyprus and they were paying about £700 a person, CFAVs were free or minimal contribution I believe.
That’s using service accommodation but civvy flights.
No idea on how it was financed.
Last time we went, we did Auschwitz which was more than normal because we couldn’t drive ourselves and bought in a package company. It was very good though, and from memory we charged about £250 to everyone.
When we’ve taken ourselves to more local places it’s been about £180.
Saying that, Nijmegen teams got flown out of Brize Norton on a C17, according to RAFAC Instagram.
Showing my age now but when I was a cadet we had loads of overseas camps
Laarbruch
Bruggen
Akrotiri
Gibraltar
Gatow
Gütersloh
Most, if not all, of the Germany camps disappeared in the late 90’s and I was fortunate enough to do Gib and Laarbruch. Cyprus was the most expensive one though I seem to remember.
Rammstein was an option in the 2000s. I had to give up my space as it clashed with my scholarship. Did get to go to Akrotiri though