Were told not to purchase them as they might not be up to standard. 1 set from cadet rip-off £8.95. Will wait and see if an IBN comes out later if we are auithorised to ear them or not.
What’s the rush, it was no earlier than 1 Oct and this year events have seen priorities change and those who staff this unable to work in the office.
I hope the WO cadre will continue to uphold the current regs and not future regs
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I can see the argument for wanting to private purchase e.g length of time taken for issue etc.
However, it’s going to look really gash having mixed rank slides for people of the same rank.
The last I’ve heard is that there is a supply issue (surprise me) so HQ have sought authority to buy in the first issue as a one-off purchase outside of the normal contract. That would provide one set per WO and won’t arrive at HQAC until the end of October.
As always I advocate not buying anything from RipOff Direct wherever humanly possible. £8.95 + around £5 P+P (if I recall correctly) for a set… Versus £3 all-in from Contact Left for the exact same slides (though he’s out of stock at the moment).
It amazes me that we don’t have a better system in place for sourcing rank slides.
I’ve had both probationary Sergeants and acting Pilot Officers appointed on squadron who after initial kitting have been told to source their own rank slides.
I can only assume that after some complete muppet chose Cadet Direct to be the ‘official supplier’ last time around we have now spent the rank slide budget for the next 15 years.
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I had to purchase own APO slides early last year. The stores at my parent station had none and said to get them from wing, whom by the way, also had none!
So it was either not wear uniform for weeks or just purchase my own.
My experience also!
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I’ve had the same issue with Staff Cadet rank slides. None from Wing or HQAC, so it was ripoff direct or no Staff Cadet. Total waste of money from Ripoff
Our Wing generally are on top of badges and slides when it’s in their power to be. They keep track of stock levels and order new badges in before current stocks are depleted.
The latest update says that people will have another 31 days to wait.
I’m sure that it doesn’t come as any great surprise to anyone.
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Good. About time.
Uniform irregularities displease me.
Also, we dont need to be kicking our nco cadre in the balls / lady balls when we need all of them.
I might suggest that promotion requirements for WO should be looked at and strengthened to keep the rank of WO for those in specific roles or command positions only.
Ditto the rank of Sqn ldr should be reviewed.
Do we really need every wing to have a random 4 extra WSOs at Sqn ldr rank?
Do officer positions at region really need to be ranked at Sqn ldr?
Region sports… Sqn Ldr… region FA… Sqn Ldr… really?
Want to support region. Fine.
You dont need the rank to do it and the argument of having to out rank the wing level is absurd.
As if you’re the region officer by definition your expertise level and position puts you in a position of authority…
Then again that is the authority vs rank argument.
How many CIs or NCOs have we got as swn commanders again… 
That’s a whole other discussion topic… let’s not give the moderators any reason for distress.
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Thank you, Mr Valiant. Quite right.
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Something the matter?
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Indeed, the criteria for promotion to FS and WO are being reviewed at the moment.
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I think this is excellent tbh. It’s about time the WO cadre were brought into line with everyone else and the current slides look gash IMO. Easier for the cadets to understand also!
I love it when a sensible idea comes along once in a while!
It’s long overdue. The only cadet force whose WO1 ranks don’t wear a WO1 badge.
I had been prodding for years for them to just make a decision - either badge everyone the same or introduce WO2. All I ever heard were excuses. “We can’t have all WOs wearing the coat of arms because the RAF won’t let us… We can’t have WO2 because the RAF don’t have WO2”.
Pffft.
It’s about time this was sorted. Especially having dragged it out for so long now.
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