Written on 22 May 2011
Every time I read in the newspapers that the Red Arrows’ may be under threat, I get a stack of visitors to my websites from folk looking for the latest rumours on the subject. Whilst I'm flattered and grateful for the ‘hits’, I make clear on the front page of the Red Arrows section of my website that I retired from the Red Arrows in 2001 and that I no longer have access to any official, non-official, or any plausible rumours, about the body of men and women I always described as "the world’s premier jet aerobatic display team". Yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph carried, on page 6, a speculative story about a "renewed threat" to the Red Arrows and already many Googlers have landed on my site after seeking more news on the subject.
During my 11 years (1989-2001), stories about threats to the Team’s future cropped up every year but none came to fruition. Threats were usually based on the assumed cost of maintaining the Team, not their value to the Nation. Every year during my term I asked the Defence Press Office in the MoD (and its predecessors) to put a figure on the annual cost of the Team. The answers I got ranged wildly from £6 million to £34 million – which makes yesterday’s figure in the Daily Telegraph (". . . the Team, which costs tax-payers £8.8 million a year . . . .") a curiously precise and low figure. You could save that figure today by disestablishing 3 or 4 Chief Executives of certain County Councils: would the public notice they had gone?
I used to tell my media contacts that they were asking the wrong question. What they should have asked was, "How much would be saved by disbanding the Red Arrows?" I then explained that if the Team were to be disbanded, the pilots, ground crew and other specialist support staffs would be absorbed elsewhere within the RAF and not sacked, so there would be no savings there. The Reds’ aircraft would be moved to the flying training school at Valley where there were always shortages, so there were no savings to be had there. Of course, I don’t know how those arguments would stand up these days. Do we still have sufficient highly skilled pilots and technicians for all our defence needs? Do we still have enough aircraft? Is the Ministry of Defence (RAF) willing to sack highly-trained pilots and technicians simply because a squadron has been disbanded, without giving thought to future needs and the high cost of training replacements? It would appear that the media are still not asking the right questions of the MoD.
There have been detractors within the RAF, some very high-ranking, ever since the Team was formed in 1964 - I was around at the time so I know that for a fact. Some of those folk are probably still around. They were never concerned about costs but were consumed with jealousy about the Team's perceived life style (which was never as good as those detractors thought and, in any case, took no account of the huge amount of talent and hard, unremitting work that was needed by everyone in the Team). It is not unlike the jealousies about the salaries and life styles of Premier League footballers. What value do you place on the Red Arrows' skills and entertainment value?
So, the other question the media should ask is, "What is the worth of the Red Arrows in terms of their contribution to the Nation’s pride and prestige throughout the world?"
Priceless, I say.