The Fanblade

Today the Royal Air Force launched its 90th anniversary celebrations with an event held at the RAF museum near Hendon, north London. The chief of the air staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, told a large crowd of dignatories and journalists that the celebrations would start officially with a service at St Clement Danes church in central London on 30 March. Then, on the actual 90th anniversary the following day, there will be a fly-past at the London Eye by the Red Arrows and Typhoon aircraft. Present at the Hendon event was Henry Allingham, aged 111, a veteran of the First World War and now the oldest man in Europe and joint second oldest man in the world. He is also the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), the pre-runner to the Royal Air Force.  In fact he is the oldest surviving member of Britain’s armed forces, and is set to have a State Funeral at Westminster Abbey as the last veteran of World War I. But most fascinating of all, Allingham remembers seeing W.G. Grace play cricket in around 1905.

The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) has put out a handy summary on yesterday’s budget, the first by the UK’s new chancellor Alistair Darling. As expected, the environment was a central feature – for example, Air Passenger Duty is to be replaced by a Per Plane Duty beginning 1 November 2009. Also of note was an increase in counter-terrorism spending from £2.5bn in the last tax year to £3.5bn in 2010-11. Defence spending over the next year will see a further £2bn for frontline operations and £900m for equipment. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, the defence budget is set to increase from £32.6bn to £36.9bn in 2010-11, but the extra funds just announced are in addition and come out of the Treasury Reserve. Note that the US defense budget as stated exceeds $400bn, and is probably well over $500bn in reality.

I am now officially a civilian instructor at Wimbledon Squadron (Sqn 18F) of the Air Cadets, the cadet force of the Royal Air Force, and last night was handed the usual guidance material about role and responsibility. As a journalist, I am also taking a keen interest in the image of the Air Cadets and have started to get involved in considering how its myriad benefits for youngsters can be portrayed to a public which is not as one in its support for the armed forces. It was striking during a debate the cadets had on various current issues, that they were shocked by the recent events involving RAF Wittering, where RAF staff have been told not to wear uniform in nearby Peterborough after taunts by certain locals. It is understandable that some will not agree with military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it is good that we have freedom of speech (to a certain extent), but one can’t help feeling that understanding of the armed forces is at a relative low-point. We need them and should value them; many others are not nearly as brave. Serving in the armed forces in whatever country is a valuable experience for any young person, and we should stress the ideal that such forces should be for peace-keeping in the first instance. It does not help when spin and lack of ‘intelligence’ causes politicians to rush the armed forces in for the wrong reasons, while failing to prepare for consequences which impact on millions of lives. Most would agree that lessons should be learned… but that’s what most said after Vietnam. [Any views here are of course purely my own as an aviation journalist]. One problem is that the RAF (and more to the point the UK Ministry of Defence) has not been accessible enough to the media over recent years, and in some ways it has paid the price for its paranoia. One result was that defence journalists started to lobby, for want of a better word, for better treatment and access – including to the front line. So it was a great step forward when the RAF invited them up to Air Command at RAF High Wycombe for a background briefing day. It was full of highly relevant presenters on various aspects of the force, and the exchange of information resulted in a clear increase of awareness among the already well-informed press corps.