My commentary this morning might possibly be fairly brief but whatever, it follows my personal attendance yesterday at the House of Commons Defence Select Committee (HCDC) oral evidence hearing which, under the heading ‘Work of the Chief of the Air Staff’ attempted to cover many different issues. Those present to provide evidence were the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston and Air Marshal Richard Knighton CB, Deputy Commander Capability at Air Command.
There are more than sufficient available newspaper accounts of yesterday’s HCDC evidence session and I have no intention of attempting to re-invent the wheel. On that score I would however, draw your attention to the most interesting accounts of yesterday’s hearing available on social media and particularly those from Deborah Haynes on @haynesdeborah which provide more than sufficient detail of the many separate issues discussed and that I am afraid to say in respect of CAS, left some questions put to him by committee members in a rather worse state than he found them.
Appearing before a House of Commons Select Committee is neither easy nor for the feint hearted. Appearing before a Select Committee when you know that you will have to be on the defensive throughout is harder than one can imagine. And that was about the best way to sum up yesterday’s performance in Committee Room 8 and that left those who attended disappointed.
Was yesterday’s session a complete car crash? Not quite perhaps but it was certainly a lost opportunity to come off the shelf and fight for what the RAF needs in terms of greater mass, capacity and capability and its people. There was throughout much of the Committee hearing yesterday, a distinct lack of credible leadership displayed.
Was any form of challenge laid down that might allow the Committee to be confident that within the ongoing Integrated Review refresh there are good reasons why some of the decisions taken in the original IR process in 2020/1 in respect of the RAF and airpower capability, need to be reconsidered? Not a bit of it – when it came to having sufficient capability, capacity and mass, CAS stuck very rigidly to the book and ministerial party line save when forced to say that in respect of long-term aspiration, he might hope that the RAF could work toward having 5 rather than 3 E7’s.
I will not dwell on this but unless my hearing is defective, I believe that CAS told the Committee that the RAF had 137 Typhoon aircraft but I think that is being a little economic with the truth. There was, for instance, no mention that some of the older Tranche 1 Typhoons included in that figure have already been cannibalised for spares ahead of their planned withdrawal from service shortly.
Protected by the fact that as yet, the requested report into RAF practices in relation to diversity and inclusion policy and particularly in respect of women and ethnic minorities being recruited over that of white males, being conducted by the Army and that is rather amazingly still yet to report plus also that there is, we were informed by the Chair of HCDC, a potential of legal action being taken, while the whole subject matter was not in its entirety glossed over as might have been wished by CAS, little new was learned.
However, pressed time and time again as to where the order that led to the resignation of Group Captain Lizzie Nichol as Head of Recruitment following around 160 cases of illegal positive discrimination having been determined, came from the top, rather than put his hands up saying that anything that occurs under my watch is my responsibility as I might have chosen to do if placed in similarly circumstances, an opportunity to show real leadership was once again missed.
Issues relating to training and as to whether having been told at the start of his tenure as Chief of the Air Staff to sort the issue of pilot training out, Air Marshal Wigston implored the Committee to believe that the RAF had sufficient trained Typhoon and F-35 pilots albeit because some that had previously left the Force had returned. He also strongly implied that the situation in respect of initial flying training had also significantly improved. Pressed in relation to the MFTS training system, I was however pleased to hear CAS admit that because the OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) had been unable to cope due to a range of other factors, that Ascent who run the MFTS system at RAF Valley had previously been requested to hold back on delivery of courses in order for the OCU issues which are outside of Ascent responsibility to be sorted and improved.
The issue of training across the whole RAF system is long and highly complicated and the debate as to whether the situation has worsened, as implied by the Rt Hon Mark Francois and his use of a quote from Secretary of State for Defence implying that the situation had got worse will no doubt continue.
I have and will not attempt to cover all the various issues covered yesterday and that I should at the very least say included the weight of helmets to be used by female pilots in order to fly the F-35 as being too heavy and will leave that one for another day. Similarly, because there is unlikely to be any change announced in the planned retirement and selling off of RAF C-130J capability that Richard Drax and Robert Courts played very hard on, will I comment further here.
HCDC Committee members, in particular Richard Drax, John Spellar, Mark Francois and Robert Courts along with the chair, Tobias Ellwood all did their stuff. Was it a great session to observe? No, it was not but when those giving evidence are under pressure, often they are not.
I will leave my own comments in respect of yesterday’s HCDC hearing at that. Sadly, the bottom line for me is that despite being encouraged to so do, opportunities to challenge and to be seen as standing up for the Royal Air Force as a Force in respect of the need for greater mass, capacity and capability were completely lost. Yet another opportunity to show real leadership was sadly lost.
CHW (London – 2nd February 2023)
Howard Wheeldon FRAeS
Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd,
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