Heads up for more Defence cuts!

[GOOSE]

From The Telegraph -

The Daily Telegraph has learned that Ministry of Defence officials have calculated that the department is at least £10 billion short of what it will need in the coming years......................ministers will soon have to start cutting and cancelling programmes due to be delivered later.

Full story here -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... -loom.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[romeo bravo]

Doesn't surprise me, they reckon that the SDSR has not made the savings that the Government wanted, so they were having to revisit.

[Figure8]

The answer is quite simple really, if we don't get involved in unwinnable wars and foolhardy foreign policy adventures we can save an absolute fortune. Or is that a little too obvious?

[Velvet Glove]

Trainee RAF pilots sacked under defence cuts will be replaced on flying courses by officers from foreign air forces.





By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent

10:00PM BST 23 Jun 2011

The Ministry of Defence is “actively seeking” foreign personnel to pay for “surplus” training places left by British personnel dismissed earlier this year, a minister has admitted.

The Daily Telegraph revealed in February that scores of RAF pilots in training are being sacked to save money.

A defence minister has now admitted that because the trainees were dismissed at such short notice, the staff and equipment for their training are still in service and must be funded.

To help meet those costs, foreign pilots will be trained. Trainee pilots from countries including Algeria and Kenya are understood to be taking up the vacant training places at RAF bases.

As part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, some 170 trainee RAF pilots were told in February that they are being made redundant.

The sacked trainees included some who were only a few days away from becoming fully qualified to fly fighters, helicopters and transport aircraft.

The cuts are said to have badly damaged morale in the RAF, which is now actively engaged in Afghanistan and Libya.

Lord Astor of Hever, a defence minister, confirmed that the sackings have left many empty places on RAF training course.

In the House of Lords, Lord Astor was challenged about the impact of sacking the RAF trainees.

He said: “It will take some time to remove the resulting additional spare capacity from the training programme and we are actively seeking to offer any surplus training slots to foreign students."

Training for foreign students is provided “at full cost” to their home governments, he said.

As well as immediate financial gain, the minister said that training foreign pilots would have long-term benefits to Britain.

He said: “Supporting the training needs of our partners and allies provides important defence and diplomacy benefits and is also a critical factor in securing contracts for defence export sales, which are worth billions of pounds and thousands of jobs to the UK defence industry.”

Andrew Brookes of the Air League, which advocates higher spending on air power, said the decision underlined the folly of sacking RAF trainees.

He said: “These cuts have not been thought through properly. We have wasted the £300 million that went into training future RAF personnel. Now it is only other nations that are keeping our training system going by paying to take their places.”

In all, the RAF will lose 5,000 posts over the next three years, reducing its size to almost 15 per cent to 32,000. Around 1,000 posts will go this year, with hundreds of compulsory redundancies expected in September.

Senior commanders say cuts are undermining the air force.

Last month, Air Chief Marshal Sir Simon Bryant, the RAF’s second in command, told MPs that the air force is threatened by a growing manning crisis as it faces running short of both pilots and ground crew

Morale among airmen is “fragile” and that their fighting spirit is being threatened by being over-worked, he said.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8594356 ... onnel.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

& http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... laces.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[headset 57]

am i the only one who think the wrong side won in WWII, Luftwaffe must be turning in their graves...

[Chough]

C'mon fellas, we need all these cuts. Where do you think the monehy is coming from to pay millions in "compensation" to prisoners in our jails ?

[P-3K]

am i the only one who think the wrong side won in WWII, Luftwaffe must be turning in their graves...

What does that post actually mean

[PR9]

Can't we just do a Greece?

[pikey01]

Can't we just do a Greece?

What, riot?

[ythanpythan]

C'mon fellas, we need all these cuts. Where do you think the monehy is coming from to pay millions in "compensation" to prisoners in our jails ?

Some of that money is definitely wasted, but some is compensation for being held beyond their release date due to poor admin in the prison service. Even the great and the good of FC would be going mental if they were held beyond the day they were meant to get out!

[headset 57]

am i the only one who think the wrong side won in WWII, Luftwaffe must be turning in their graves...

What does that post actually mean

means i bet if the old soldiers sailors and airman of yesteryear knew what we end up with now they'd probably do a Frenchie and surrender, to think we were the 2nd biggest force in Europe and now we're stuck between the Irish Air Corps and the Swiss navy.
I'd even go so far as encouraging a mass mutiny in what's left of the Navy, except we can't find a plank to walk the Admirals on, and if i was a 'front' line jet pilot i'd probably just bang out and put it in at the end of the runway, and save the taxpayer the cost of having to run it, or at least stop the govt giving them away for scrap!...

I'd also not take up a career as a jet jockey, and just stick with the transports / helos as at least the airlines will find you useful when you get kicked out!...
i Can fully understand why those 2 jet jockeys went on a bender and got sent back home...
I'd fly for the country, but i wouldn't fight for it!...

[HighlandSniper]

I'd also not take up a career as a jet jockey, and just stick with the transports / helos as at least the airlines will find you useful when you get kicked out!...

Odd isn't it how many former fast-jet jockeys go on to fly airliners then?

i Can fully understand why those 2 jet jockeys went on a bender and got sent back home...

All cut and dried in your mind then - does combat stress not into your thoughts, it's always a possibility.

I'd fly for the country, but i wouldn't fight for it!...

Good job it doesn't need you then - Britain prefers pilots with more loyalty.

[gonk]

I read a comment in a paper a few weeks ago, it said i wasn't fooled by blair,but i was by cameron.That goes for a lot of us,i didn't realise his only priority was to back up the banks ,and that is were the major part of the deficit came from,and to give foreign aid to countries either distrust us or have larger armed forces than us,if you are skint you dont give what you have away .So who is he and his band of brigands working for.i almost forgot,the UK will loose £386 billion of taxpayers money not if but when Greece defaults on the IMF loan.