RAFAC Pins

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Very good.
Can we get some like that, I’d pay for them. I won’t pay for the ones I should get issued.

I have heard the rumour that those were “too expensive to produce” so they’ve gone for “RAFAC” (all on one line).

It could be the usual nonsense rumour though - there have been so many over the years which have proved to be utter rubbish.

I don’t actually believe that one style is more expensive than the other - Either design requires custom tooling to be made.

Does this mean they won’t be ready for 1st December? Further delays?

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That’s anyone’s guess.

I’d be surprised if the biggest part of the delay wasn’t all because they wanted to get 9 different custom woven WO/SNCO rank slides.

They should have done the same for us as for the officers - embroidered text on a backing with our rank slide attached. It’s not as though there isn’t already a huge supply of rank slides available.
It would surely have been far cheaper as well!

But nope. Somebody had to be “clever”.
From what I saw recently too they look terrible. Cheap-looking tat, woven in white on blue rather than the sliver that we’re used to.

“Progress” and all that…

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Slight thread drift, but yes they are not as I expected them to look. They look printed on IMO and very cheap.

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Better report that to quality control. :wink:

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Next to be announced for issue…

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But someone will be thinking they have done a really splendid job, had drinks and nibbles in the mess and their mates got them approved for a knighthood and large wad of cash.

That is precisely what I expected them to look like, and a whole lot better than the suggested amateur solution of sticking a normal rank slide over some backing.

The probationary one looks a bit odd but the rest is the sort of design we should have moved to years ago.

My issue is that they’ve gone for the “RAF Air Cadets” branding rather than ATC or RAFAC. The overall design of these is fine and could have been a whole lot worse (trapezoid slides on heavy material for a start).

I would of preferred RAFAC embroidered for all than RAF Air Cadets - surely that would of been a little (not much) cheaper too?

Have the been issued to wings yet? And will we make the December timescale?

They look better than I expected, as i imagined they would be like the Staff Cadet slides.

This looks similar to the Officer ones, with the exception being different backing for officers.

Well unless they ‘hit the streets’ in the next week, December 1st is but a dream.

However unless the new commission is fully sorted out, would sending them out be a bit premature?

They’ve already said that once you receive the new ones, they are to be worn. So don’t think they care about anything being premature.

I’d say that the move to SNCO/WO RAFAC slides is related to, but not dependent upon, the new CFC.

Not sure why you think that as we moved to RAFAC some time ago and could of been in them months ago. The issue for most is there’s no supplier of them yet for SNCOs and given we are now all the same i fail to see and understand why officers are not wearing the same and have option of MTP ect

Officers have to buy the MTP backed slides…

And backed slides are needed for Plt Off/Fg Off as the braids are small anyway, Flt Lt and above never needed backed slides (pre-CFC)

Why do we need these new rank slides? Nothing is changing for the NCOs, they will still be in the be in the ATC. The ATC is only a part of the RAFAC.

As the new commissioning announcements state officers will be awarded the CFC commission and appointed to the SCC, ACF or ATC/CCF depending on where they serve. Would it not haver been better for everybody to just to wear ATC of CCF pins.

Then there would be no need to spend money on new rank slides for everybody and officers looking gash in MTP because many on principle will not buy something that should be issued.

An issue has been created where none existed, we could have all been brought under the ATC/CCF umbrella at zero cost. As it stands they have brought in new insignia and they are unable to properly fund it. A hole has been created in this pointless rebranding exercise and HQAC has kept on digging.

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Have you asked RC(N)?