Page 18 - Cormorant Issue 20 2017

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The commitment, pride and enthusiasm of those personnel who gave up their time to impart their knowledge to the course cannot be overstated. Without them, the broad range of impressive capability we had been shown over the two day period would have been little more than pieces of metal in a cold Lincolnshire eld.
After the various displays and brie ngs, the course left Lincolnshire in no doubt as to the ability of the RAF to undertake their mission - ‘to provide an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission’.
Despite challenging times ahead, with tasking as great as it was in WWII and the need to deliver
under a banner of scal responsibility, the RAF was promoted as healthy, moving forward and adapting to the security environment presented. They are doing this with new and cutting edge equipment and are in a better place than they have been for many years. The challenge, as with all Services
at the moment, is to enable output with limited
mass, without overstretching the people behind
the equipment, in order to maximise retention of personnel, whilst simultaneously delivering to support current operations all over the world.
RAF Coningsby did an excellent job of hosting the course over the two days, but despite the shiny new, capable equipment, the lasting memory for most of the course was the high calibre of people making that equipment function, ensuring that the RAF remains a leader in capability across the globe.