Daily Mirror :- "Red Arrows face axe"

[Gary]

The front of tomorrow Daily Mirror, just shown on Sky News and on their twitter feed



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Ooops didn't think it would come out that big

[dpj102]

now that is BIG news, literally

[Aircraftpaulcornwall]

Hi Gary,
That's really bad news - unfortunately this is the way that things are going nowadays - with all of the proposed defence cuts!! --Paul

[reheat]

And the runway is getting resurfaced at Scampton.It sounds about right.

[Lowfly11]

The Red Arrows aren't just a display team that thrill the crowds at air shows..they represent the aerospace/defence industry of the U.K. and fly the flag of this country..this is more very gloomy depressing news as if things aren't bad enough.

[Pune]

Is this just another tabloid rumour?
We can hope.

[reheat module]

It's a theme that raises its head each time a military financial cull is on the radar.
In an age where the military budget is consistently squeezed (and I've been subjected to it for 37 yrs so know the effect first hand), let me pose the following:
Our boys and girls are limited in number, limited in assets, limited in equipment and deployed in austere dangerous conditions, what do they need... Top cover? Better protection? Safer environments? or a nominally UK based display team (albeit fantastic at what they do, and yes I'm hugely aware of what else they achieve).
The military involvement around the world is costly and I see that priorities have to be made, my fear is that once a decision is made (if so), with fiscal events it may be difficult to regenerate a military display team in the immediate future.

[CAB]

In other news..... TItanic hits iceberg and sinks.

[reheat]

Sky News are reporting that the M.O.D. are denying any knowledge of the Reds being done away with.

[chrisfg1]

Could be a nice bit of spin from Cameron's crew. Saint Dave might 'personally' step in to save the Reds. Wouldn't defence be great if we could just take the politics out of it!!?

[Dazza37]

What complete and utter bilge... (the non-story in the Daily Mirror that is...)

-Dazza

[steve149c]

Tabloid crap as usual!

[Adam]

Yep, I'm calling it tabloid crap too.

[Pen Pusher]

BBC Breakfast doing a review of the newspaper front pages at the moment and apparently 10 Downing Street have contacted the BBC to say the Daily Mirror story is totally untrue.

So they are being disbanded.

Brian

[22A]

How ironic; many years ago a senior RAF officer writing in "Air clues" suggested that to keep funding for the front line we should scrap the Red Arrows & the BBMF. "If the public want to see something at an airshow, then have Harriers making short take offs and Jaguars performing grass operations". All these years later we've lost the Harriers & Jags, but still have the Reds and BBMF.

[Happy Camper]

firstly the 'scrap the red arrows' cry is someThing that happens every single time theres a serious cash problem in the MOD - its a tactic used by the RAF whenever the RAF feel squeeed: they say to MOD/PM/Treasury that if cuts have to be made then they cannot justify operational platforms being cut while RAFAT remains in service. Treasury backs down when PM decides he can find the cash elsewhere.

secondly, reheat is correct, in a time of war (you remember, the nasty, painful, expensive thing that is currently killing young men at a rate of knots within which the RAF is tasked with killing people and breaking their stuff), it is entirely reasonable to ask what Defence needs most: a group of red planes getting lots of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' at airshows, or 10 trained, experienced, fighter pilots and all the techs and nut stranglers who put them in the air on the RAF's bomber squadrons?

the answer, for those who are not sufficiently myopic to believe that going 'oohh' and 'aahh' at an airshow is more important than killing fundamentalist terrorists and providing Close Air Support to 18 yo boys from the street next to you who are trying to deal with a bloke who's had a leg blown off, while the Taliban are attempting to over-run their position with RPG's and belt-fed machine-guns, should be pretty obvious...

[CAB]

its a tactic used by the RAF whenever the RAF feel squeeed: they say to MOD/PM/Treasury that if cuts have to be made then they cannot justify operational platforms being cut while RAFAT remains in service.

Apart from being utter bollocks that statement doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

[Happy Camper]

its a tactic used by the RAF whenever the RAF feel squeeed: they say to MOD/PM/Treasury that if cuts have to be made then they cannot justify operational platforms being cut while RAFAT remains in service.

Apart from being utter bollocks that statement doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

reading problem, or just not bright enough to convert the words into a thought?

headlines screaming 'the Red Arrows to be cut' have been a part of the media scrum around defence 'reviews' since i started reading newspapers in the mid 1980's - options for change certainly had them, as did the 2005 cuts, 2010 SDSR etc.. if you missed them then you can't have been concentrating very hard.

[C24]

Man management?

Most military organisations work best when morale is high & everyone is pushing their personal skills envelope, trying to be better than their peers.
Every pilot wants to be a Top Gun candidate, then a TG Instructor. Remove the motivation of becoming a Red Arrow pilot & there would be no incentive for the highly skilled squadron pilot. No competion at a very high level brings lower standards.

To reach the selection process for the RAs, Instructors hone their skills which trickle down to the training programme, too.

The Red Arrows provides the imputus for a better set of pilots thoughout the RAF who would have the necessary [higher] skill set to provide cover for the chaps on the ground.

Expressed in another way, all carting drivers would like to drive in F1.

Having expressed my opinion, I fear that 'Reheat' could be correct - a lot of money is due to be spent on the runway repairs at RAF Scampton.

[SteveS]

Wow!



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