Page 98 - North Atlantic and Nordic Defense

North European and North Atlantic Defense: The Challenges Return

Question: In your training capacity, how do you see the changes for the younger generation coming into
the service?

Lt. Col. Baker: “Many of the new personnel coming in off the street are being trained over a period of only a
couple of years and then being put directly into operational experiences. When I became an Aurora pilot, I
was one of the younger (in service) pilots because I had served for five years. The norm in those days was
more around 7 years of service. That meant that pilots had had 5-7 years to be molded in the military norms.

“This is changing now as new entrants gain operational experience much faster. And we are working to
change our training methods as well from being based on printed manuals to more intuitive computer based
learning.

“We have very high capability simulation on the operational side that has been used to great effect to
prepare our crews to deploy. That's the only reason we can graduate them and send them in theater
immediately, is because of the quality of the simulation we have.

“By involving the younger generation early in operations, we are highlighting their intuitive learning skills as
well. With the shortages of human resources that we have now, it means that for many of them, they graduate
from the OTU, they're full crew members, and go to their operational squadron, and the first thing they do is
get ready to deploy and deploy immediately after. And they are performing brilliantly well.

“For example, I have the case of a pilot, where I signed his logbook as graduating being an Aurora co-pilot
in my role as the training squadron commander, and my congratulations, left a little note in his log book.

“Then I deployed to Operation IMPACT where I saw him a couple weeks later. He's deploying, and the first
flight he does is with me in theater. There's a guy that I just graduated a few weeks before, now he's flying
with me in a no-duff theater of war. That's pretty special.”

Canada, the UK and the Seed-corn Program: Keeping UK ASW Skill Sets
Alive
2017-10-18 By Robbin Laird and Murielle Delaporte

When the UK cancelled the Nimrod MRA4 program, the RAF faced a significant challenge: how to keep UK
ASW and MPA skill sets alive?

The UK established the seed-corn program to provide a bridge to what would become an acquisition of the
P-8 by the RAF several years later, namely in 2016.
This meant that there has been a several year gap whereby the UK needed to keep its skill sets alive.

According to Flight International in an article written by Craig Hoyle and published in 2012:

Efforts by the Royal Air Force to retain core skills in maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) operations will include 33
personnel and a total investment of £3.2 million ($5.1 million) for the current financial year, the UK government
has revealed.
Dubbed Project "Seedcorn", the measure is intended to allow RAF crew to fly with allied air forces to maintain
experience in MPA operations following the cancellation of the UK's BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 programme. This
covers anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare duties, plus intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and
reconnaissance tasks.
Second Line of Defense

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