The RAF has launched a desperate search for pilots after a secret and unlawful bid to discriminate against white men backfired and left the air force with an acute shortage of combat-ready flyers. The Mail has the story.
RAF bosses have launched a desperate search for pilots after a secret bid to discriminate against white male applicants backfired.
Candidates previously overlooked are now being urged to re-apply for training as the Air Force frantically tries to fill cockpits with combat-ready flyers, the Mail can reveal.
The plea follows a controversial drive by top brass to prioritise the recruitment of women and ethnic minorities, which was found to be unlawful.
The urgent need for pilots has become so pressing that air chiefs are actively encouraging older candidates, who have some level of flight experience, to sign up.
It has been reported that the Royal Air Force is suffering from a 30% shortfall in pilots at the ranks of Flight Lieutenant and Squadron Leader. Official RAF sources have challenged these statistics but have not produced their own.
It comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged to put “jets in the sky” to protect Ukraine as part of a post-conflict stabilisation force to be confirmed this week.
The Labour leader has already ramped up spending on defence to 2.5% of GDP.
And other leaders in Europe quickly backed plans to step up their investment in military hardware after Donald Trump said they could no longer depend on the United States for protection.
Last night, Shadow Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois, said: “The RAF’s availability of combat pilots has been hit by a perfect storm: including woke manipulation of recruiting practices, the revival of civilian airlines post-Covid and technical issues with training aircraft, particularly engine reliability on the Hawk T2.” …
An official document, seen by the Mail, has revealed the RAF requires “a higher number of pilots for training”.
To plug the shortfall, air chiefs want personnel from other branches of the RAF, who may previously have been rejected due to their scores in suitability assessments, to reapply. …
It also comes after an official inquiry in 2023 found the RAF unlawfully discriminated against white male pilot applicants.
A group of 31 white male pilot trainees were held back, a review found. They subsequently received compensation.
The RAF was also forced to admit its target for 40% of the force to be female and 20% from an ethnic minority background by 2030 was “unrealistic”.
Group Captain Lizzie Nicholl, at the time the RAF’s Head of Recruitment, refused to follow the order which she rightly stated was contrary to the Equality Act.
The probe found she was subjected to “significant and at times unreasonable” pressure to push through the unlawful policy.
Former head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, faced to calls to resign over the ‘woke’ recruitment scandal.
In the same year, a report by the House of Commons Defence Select Committee accused RAF bosses of “complacency” regarding “a reduction in the Ministry of Defence’s ability to produce combat-ready aircrew within expected timescales”.
Worth reading in full.
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