The armouries are there, they are alarmed, they have been for years. And now because they aren’t being used they’re being removed.
They aren’t being used because THE WEAPONS WERE NEVER ISSUED. That’s not a squadron issue.
I might just turn to one of my cadets and tell them that I’m not promoting them to corporal because they haven’t performed well enough in the corporal role to keep it. See if the logic makes any sense to them, because it doesn’t make sense to me.
Not getting value for money? Try putting some weapons in them.
Certain Sqn in SWR, with an indoor 25m .22 range (.303 really) and armoury, not selected for an alarm as it wasn’t central enough in the wing. Alarm given to a single pane tube range instead which has now never seen a weapon. Cadets asking when they get to do shooting, only answer I can give is “I don’t know”.
Durrr what? The point was to spread them around - you can’t have them all “central”!
Wherever they are, someone will have to travel, someone will have to travel further, and some lucky sod will get to roll out of bed onto the range. The important aspect should have been where has the best potential for use? Range size and quality should have been the factor after suitable armoury, then followed by teaching space.
I’m a cadet, so don’t know anything more than what I’ve heard. All the L144s in a certain wing in SWR are now being held centrally rather than on the range. I’ve shot the L144 a couple of times, and they were used in our wing competition weekend, so I’m surprised they aren’t so widely used. Equally, I know many cadets who are a decent shot on both the air rifle and L98, yet couldn’t hit a barn door with the .22 at ten paces, so I see why they aren’t liked.
So was talking about this with the Wing Shooting Officer yesterday.
You can see the RC Instruction here (Thanks B&G) and an FoI was submitted on this over the weekend so will be interesting to see that response in ~45 days.
Locally this has no impact on us, other than the hope we’ve been holding onto for the pat 5 years being removed, we’ve not got any hubs operational so it’s been bad money thrown after bad money and a lot of effort with alarms in place but no value being received.
Honestly, this whole shebang needs some sort of proper formal review on why it’s gone so wrong. A few ministerial complaints? I bet it has cost 100s of thousands. If not into the 7 figure mark all in. Yet the actual benefits have been minimal.
Absolute farce and waste of tax payers money! I don’t know enough about the situation to comment as to who is at fault, but surely this level of screw up sits with HQ. Even if not directly their fault, this should have been solved years ago.
I think it’s been a combination of factors, not helped by a pandemic.
Poor procurement, poor communication, poor implementation, the RAF not doing their jobs and making life as hard as possible.
Undoubtedly there has been money wasted but I still think this could have been resolved. Why isn’t the new air cadet charity being approached to fund it? Isn’t that what it’s there for?
Not being in the shooting fold and not owning any weapons, or wanting to.
Is the RAFAC being held to a higher level of security than Joe Public with the required arms certificate a .22 target rifle, or a shot gun for clays or indeed a full bore rifle?
This is great (not necessarily the news!) but in terms of at least there’s still information. Definitely some areas around where we’ve been left with its closing, but there is zero information pm the why’s other than because region says so.
Open Coms even if you don’t like what’s in it at least takes away some of the frustration/anger
This whole thing is really getting out of hand now. Won’t be long until the FOI thing is removed, I know of about 3 other FOIs on a similar subject and all because SW have gone off on one.
Be careful what you wish for! Certain privileges are accorded by virtue of MoD sponsorship. Were you regulated by the Licensing Authority solely under the provisions of the Firearms Act you would find quite a few additional onerous regulations would apply at some significant expense.
exmpa
BTW Joe Public; of which you’re are one Mr_Oz; own firearms. The military proper and authorised police units employ weapons.
5.1 Non-residential club premises where firearms are stored should have secure storage that is commensurate with the number of firearms the club will hold. The standard should equate to at least the appropriate level expected for domestic property. This level of security should depend on the individual risk factors.
That might be Level 2 = not that onerous - firearms locked up (locks to BSi standard) & audible alarm.
However, lots of faff generating an approved club for constitution, etc. HO fees are £444 I think!
