Bad enough that delivery of the first of a planned fleet of 25 proposed Airbus A400M military airlifters is already running close to three years late and as yet, not even a single rivet has been made meaning the RAF which is already struggling to meet ever increasing demands in the NATO Afghanistan campaign is forced to carry troops, equipment and supply in a extremely warn out fleet of Lockheed Martin C130J plus six (a seventh has been ordered from the Boeing, Long Beach factory) of the mighty C17 Globemaster heavylift aircraft. In addition and in terms of ferrying troops long distances the RAF still has a fleet of three ex Pan Am L1011 TriStar aircraft that date from the early to mid 1970’s and that, as any self respecting member of the armed forces will tell you, are not exactly that reliable! Nevertheless, until relatively recently ferrying troops long distances to the Iraq and Afghanistan battlefields and serving the dozens of other locations served by the RAF be they UK dependent territories or as part of our overall NATO commitment has just about been manageable due in no small part to the seven strong C1K contingent of the 14 strong fleet of Vickers VC-10 aircraft that happen to be designated as either passenger, freight or refuelling. Seven C1K aircraft in total as opposed to the seven K3/K4 versions which is almost solely used for air to air refuelling and that over very many years has done a fantastic unsung job to RAF front line aircraft sorties and those of our NATO allies in theatre. Well, from a passenger carrying perspective I should say until now as it seems that despite managing over the past few very difficult years to just about face up to huge shortages in available transport aircraft the RAF is now, all of a sudden, no longer allowed by the MoD to use VC10 aircraft to specifically fly passengers (troops).
As is well known I am sure the Vickers VC-10 entered service with the RAF in 1966. Together with the struggling TriStar passenger aircraft and the additional TriStar refuellers will be stood down within the next two to three years when the £13bn Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) Private Finance Initiative program takes over the running RAF aerial refuelling and air transport requirements meaning the existing fleet of 26 VC-10’s and TriStar aircraft will be stood down. FSTA will utilise a fleet of 14 Airbus A330 aircraft so I will leave the reader to spot the gap in capacity! Today it is not my wish to go into the FSTA program but whilst I can understand the concern that reasoned the ending of VC-10 use as a passenger aircraft following certain criticism expressed by the Haddon-Cave inquiry last year into the 2006 Nimrod crash given that unlike the Nimrod the Vickers VC-10 has an excellent record in RAF service over 48 years I find the MoD move to ban VC-10 use for carrying passengers a complete overreaction.
Whilst VC-10 will continue to operate as a tanker refuelling aircraft for a couple of years yet the gap in available transport resource will have to be met by the RAF hiring commercial aircraft and presumably operators – in theory doubling the cost. The central issue though is that even if the A400M program is now at long last about to move forward and taking account of the extra C-17 that the government has now ordered a huge shortage in lift capacity will likely exist for the next three to four years at least. That is completely unacceptable. The government must in my view back down on its refusal to order an eight C-17 and it may need to also consider acquiring more C130J’s assuming Lockheed Martin has the capacity to supply. Again this shortfall in lift capacity is yet another example of failure by the Brown government to spend sufficiently on defence. Bad enough that we haven’t got nearly enough Helicopters such as the Merlin but to have a shortfall in airlift capacity is quite appalling.
