but picking up from Odiham to shoot at Bisley makes logical sense in terms of time weapons are on the road.
you have reduced the “at risk” time so fail to see the point. is it really easier to pick it all up from St Athan and travel to the range?
at least Odiham is in the general direction!
[/trolling]
The very real and major concern … where is TG5 in all this?
They should have been all over this like measles and getting whoever on the approprate pay grade (if not them) to rattle some cages, before it got to this. It wasn’t (or can’t have been) a case of turn up on Monday morning and the high and mighty think, not doing that anymore and a tough titty email coming out. This has been going to happen for months, but it seems everyone who can make (or who we’d like to think can make) a decision has been asleep, hoped someone else will come up with the solution or stuck their fingers in their ears going “la la la” hoping it will go away just like the CTC vs SC debacle.
I’m afraid in the world of private sector supply chain, that is exactly what happens. One day they provide a service, the next they pull out of the contact and start lengthy legal wrangling over the early cancellation charges. It doesn’t matter whether you are TG5 or a 1*, it’s an ongoing risk. But hey, someone has a nice stockholder portfolio now.
Not quite. You would be advised that from this date unless a new contract is agreed the provision will be stopped, we get an email everytime our counsumables contracts are up for renewal. If we in the ACO haven’t had a contract or at least an SLA to provide weapons servicing etc then more fool us. This puts the onus on the provider to ensure a service or advise loss/reduction, which should incur financial penalties. Next time around it gives you the whiphand to demand a provision and steer the pricing or seek a new provider.
This is why we have a ‘buying’ dept at work with people managing and negotiating contracts.
If as seems to be the case / suggestion we are dealing with more private sector providers in the 21st Century armed forces, maybe we need contract managers, to get new and manage current suppliers. Oh and some professional project managers. I know that these people are out there in CFAVland doing this as proper jobs.
Yes, but you don’t deal with MOD contracts do you?
And the bigger problem is that we are not a seperate organisation from the RAF in the bigger scheme of things, so no SLA or contracts; we don’t have a Contracts Dept, all our procurement goes through the higher Service, the RAF.
In the case of Logs, we are part of the RAF system, in the same way as any other front-line Command in the RAF. Did we get notification of Clothing contracts slipping, no; should we, no why would we. It has nothing to do with sqns until it impacts of day to day operations and that should come down the CoC.
Looking at the original post, a fair number of areas within the MOD are being privatised, a Government directive out of our control. Even if posts remain within the RAF (or possibly Army in the case of MOD St Athan), other pressures will/could mean undermanning in other areas. Its all down to operational requirements. In this case, there is a good chance that these are civilianised posts at E/SZ grades, pay not good so why would anyone take them on when they can earn more sponging of the tax payer.
some might consider being paid to drive around Wales drinking tea, eating Kebabs and fiddling with rifles… 
This sounds like a job for REME(V) units in Wales. It could even be done at Weekends and evenings as PTD/Parade night training.
Has taht suggestion been put forward?
Are there a lot of REME(V) units in that neck of the woods? Could be an option, although it might get triky when the unit deploys.
Well, as the 3 jobs have been re-advertised with interviews apres 30th November I can’t see this being solved anytime soon.
Someone mentioned the ACF; I suggest also you speak to your local CCF, if you have one (I appreciate Wales is rather unevenly populated with CCFs) if only for dry training. They may also have a range and their own .22 weapons; and an ammo store.
This means you can pre-position ammunition there, to use with their no. 8s. CCFs will be open mid-week so for example if you can get ammo delivered on a weekday to your local CCF, then go to shoot there at the weekend, at least .22 shooting can continue, and L98A2 dry training.
If you approach them and get an unhelpful response, let me know and I’ll try to make contact via CCFA; all CCFs should be supportive and if they’re not, we are interested to know why…
(PS also a CCF may well have an RAF section so be more friendly to the ATC than the ACF…)
Not sure if it will helps this specific situation, but it seems that some regulations concerning transportation might change for the “cadet target rifle.”
Apparently, this was done by applying the existing .22" concessions to the CTR…
I can confirm that there has been a change in the transportation policy this week. I suggest you check with your CoC for the details. It is an MOD wide policy.
B*gger - Bader Sharepoint on maintenance until late tomorrow afternoon.
Ask your WEXO, ours sent it out to all yesterday.
It’ll be weeks before it’s on SharePoint 
Nothing filtered down as yet & nothing that I’ve found on SharePoint…
try the Thames Valley sharepoint site
Took some digging but my god that makes sense!
Mostly good news. However, para 4. might cause us some difficulties. I vaguely remember an exemption coming from another announcement that allowed us to use civilian vehicles instead, can anyone confirm?