Britain has contingency plans in place to “rapidly increase the number of front-line pilots in the RAF if required,” according to Defence Minister Louise Sandher-Jones, who confirmed the policy in a series of written parliamentary answers.
Responding to questions from Graeme Downie MP, the minister said that while details of those contingency measures remain classified, the RAF maintains flexibility to adjust pilot throughput and front-line manning to meet operational needs. “Details of specific contingency plans are not released for operational and personnel security reasons,” she wrote.
Sandher-Jones explained that the Royal Air Force continuously manages its training pipelines to align with forecasted front-line demand for fast jet, multi-engine, and rotary pilots.
“The RAF actively manage the pilot training pipelines to ensure that trainee flowthrough is kept to an optimum and meets the front-line requirements,” she said, noting that both the rate and volume of qualified aircrew are calibrated against projected operational needs in the coming years.
The minister also addressed Downie’s question about how many fast jet pilots are expected to complete training and enter service in the next five years.
“The number of Royal Air Force fast jet pilots that are expected to complete training and commence Operational Conversion Units is based upon the front-line demand for qualified pilots in future years,” she said, adding that such figures will not be published as they “may provide tactical advantage to hostile forces causing operational and personnel security risks.”
Downie also sought data on the number of pilots who have completed training in the last five years, broken down by aircraft and service type. Sandher-Jones again declined to release those figures for security reasons, but reiterated that the RAF’s training system is structured to sustain operational output and readiness.
I’m sure they do. A mixture of calling up recently retired pilots and advancing training schedules for those in training BUT you can’t put them in aircraft that don’t exist. The RAF simply does not have enough fast jets, tankers or ammunition to meaningfully expand in short order.
There is the issue.
The actuarial approach to frames where every drop of activity is squeezed from them with an empty spares bin is the definition of inability to surge.
Depending on the circumstances, I’ve always imagined that in a UK specific emergency, that didn’t necessarily involve our allies (e.g. another Falklands scenario) the UK would pay over the odds to purchase airframes from allies as an UOR. For example, additional F35Bs purchased from USMC, Italy or Japan; or Typhoons purchased from other operators. Even Tornados might be useful for some missions, with many vets having a rusty but still useful knowledge of how to operate and maintain them.
In a wider international emergency situation, I think the UK is banking on its geographic position buying it sufficient time to get it’s act together and build new kit.
Neither of these are necessarily good plans, but have probably been used as excuses by ministers for not spending money to maintain large active or reserve fleets.
I agree, we have a vast lack of aircraft not pilots. The reason we don’t have enough pilots is because we don’t have enough airplanes. Pilots can be trained two years at a cost of £5m each (most of that cost is the cost per hour of the airframes themselves)
From ordering a plane on an existing production line it takes five to seven years for a delivery and costs £100 million.
If the plane is not in production it will take twenty years and costs £20 billion.
We are not in the Battle of Britain and we need to stop thinking that way. Pilots are easy to get planes very difficult.
In a war if a plane is shot down there is a 80% chance of survival for the pilot and zero chance of the plane.
We need more planes than pilots even if the planes are just sitting in storage they are useful.
Doubt.
They say they can rapidly train more pilots if required.
It IS required! Train more now and buy more planes for them now.
Don’t wait until it starts raining to build the bloody ark!
Unless I’m mistaken, the RAF have the opposite problem to the navy; pilots aren’t getting enough hours on airframes, and there simply aren’t enough aircraft and spares available.
Why train more pilots to sit around, when the focus should be on increasing the available fleets of aircraft
Yup they are going through training and then flying desks until the specialist slots become available.
Some are leaving, like an acquaintance, whose time was up before he got a slot! He walked into a civilian job.
So there is a lot of bleed at that level.
More frames and an ocean of spares are needed. All the bits that fail regularly need to be to hand in quantity. A mindset change is required in terms of forward positioning stocks.
Actually it is perfectly possible to a pay-when-expended model so MoD pays for the stock which is held on base. There are plenty of commercial models like this.
Do they have plans to rapidly expand aircraft numbers?
I hear Airfix have some good bulk offers?
That’s probably the MoDs plan, its not like you can quickly roll a Typhoon or F35 off a production line.
Better get on with it then given it takes years to train a new pilot, even refreshing and converting reserve pilots to current aircraft is not a quick fix.
Umh, train more pilots?
They need to choose a replacement for Hawk and get it into production in numbers as quickly as possible, also order more T-6. And as well at increasing training, ensure that some are available for operational pilots to get flying hours in if there aren’t enough Typhoons and F-35s. No-one joins up as a pilot to do paperwork, important as it is. I appreciate that combat aircraft are expensive to buy and maintain and simulators are very good these days. But pilots want to fly. and getting a few hours a week in a T-6 or M-346 is going to improve morale and retention whilst also enhancing basic flying and navigation skills.