A Sad State Of Affairs

[Jimbuna]

Hardly surprising when you consider the amount of austerity measures our armed forces have been subject to.

Shame on the politicians

'Morale poor' among UK crews at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus.

Raids against Islamic State are being conducted from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus "with broken jets and tired and fed-up people", BBC Newsnight has been told.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30338659

[Schroeder]

That's poor indeed but reflect the status of a lot of armed forces these days. It probably doesn't help either that the Tornado is way past it's peak. it's a good bomber but it's age is showing and if there are no spare parts and crews to fix it it will fall apart in combat.

[raymond6751]

It's information like this that sets Putin to smiling, and getting bolder. No doubt his forces are equally in need, but you can never expect them to complain.

It is our right to complain, in the free world, but there are reasons why weaknesses should not be revealed.

[eddie]

It is sad to see this happen.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by raymond6751

It is our right to complain, in the free world, but there are reasons why weaknesses should not be revealed.

I think there are reasons to not let these weaknesses happen in the first place. To say "Keep quiet and deal with it!" will only lead to more weaknesses as the guys the guys in uniform will get demoralized more and more especially when it comes to completely avoidable stuff like that food issue for the night shift.

[Wolferz]

Wouldn't it be nice if nobody showed up the next time the politicians decide to throw a war party?

[Skybird]

In my understanding the British forces always stood out from the rest of the Western forces, for two reasons: their training standard, and their morale/motivation.

If you take away one of these two major factors, then logically only one remains.

Not good. Its all becoming a bit thin.

Not meaning to say that things are better with German armed forces. Not at all. And the German defence budget is smaller than the British...

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Wouldn't it be nice if nobody showed up the next time the politicians decide to throw a war party?

You mean the enemy side's politicians?

"Its better to have a weapon and not needing it, than to need a weapon, and not having one."

"Those who have no swords still can die upon them."

[Herr-Berbunch]

The GR4 is currently the most potent aircraft we have for this role, the Typhoon may just get there eventually but not yet, the Harrier that everyone says we shouldn't have gotten rid of (me included) still wasn't as potent or as agile (as a weapon platform) as the GR4. How we dwindled down to so few is purely politics, again.

Now I've been to some crap places (and believe me, Akrotiri is far from crap. It may not be in its heyday but it's still far better than a lot of places), and I've had some crap food whilst in these crap places. I've worked 16+ hour days for days on end (if you don't get any time off in a week you've got the world's crappest boss). They're getting paid more whilst out there, they'll have access to t'interweb and phone calls home. I doubt they'll be confined to camp so they'll be down the bars of Akrotiri strip, it's not a hard life by any stretch of the imagination.

Even if it was - you just do it, you get by, you live, you laugh, you get together and do what you have to do.

What you don't do is write a letter to a newspaper. The guy should get his P45 for that. Sure, if there is some serious safety issues not being addressed then highlight it (there is dedicated flight-safety lines/email for such, and action WILL be taken to rectify soonest), if there is bullying (serious, not banter) and non-addressal of this then maybe, just maybe, after all other lines have been taken then a letter to a paper might be justified. But for this? Nah.

And you think they'd just be glad to get out of Marham into the sun for a few weeks!

[Oberon]

They've obviously been in Norfolk for too long. They've gone local.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

What you don't do is write a letter to a newspaper. The guy should get his P45 for that. Sure, if there is some serious safety issues not being addressed then highlight it (there is dedicated flight-safety lines/email for such, and action WILL be taken to rectify soonest), if there is bullying (serious, not banter) and non-addressal of this then maybe, just maybe, after all other lines have been taken then a letter to a paper might be justified. But for this? Nah.

Maybe the other options failed? And sticking to them would only ensure that nothing would change since those sitting higher in the food chain must not feel any urge to address things in times of limited budgets?

And excessive wordload - well, every body has its limits. Cannot say wehether they reached them, but one should know for sure that going beyond the limits of workload sooner or later erodes psyche and physis, leads to decreasing maintenance standards - and from some point on starts to cost lives.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Maybe the other options failed?

My initial thought/fear as well.....perhaps things have gotten so bad and at an unprecedented level.

Bottom line being....not good enough Mr Cameron

[ikalugin]

This is the issue with open countries. When you get problems - the public finds out.

[Skybird]

That is not just "open societies", ikalugin. In the GDR, everybody knew what worked and what not, too.

From own experience.

On the other hand, what the NSA does or what has been done in research at Groom Lake (area 51), still is pretty much a mystery in media-hyped and ultra-open society of USA, while the implications of critical economical problems like paper money do not even get wanted to know by many.

Think you stereotype a bit there.