‘Woke’ and ‘illegal’ RAF recruitment scheme leaves service in need of pilots | UK | News | EUROtoday

A “woke” RAF recruitment practise has left the service dealing with a pilot scarcity. The recruitment directive noticed an e-mail despatched to senior leaders telling them to cease selecting “useless white male pilots” in an try to enhance variety and was discovered to be illegal in 2023.

In the wake of the scandal, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton was compelled to apologise following an inquiry into bias. According to a leaked doc seen by the Daily Mail, the service is now in want of a “higher number of pilots in training”, with applicant beforehand rejected set to be focused. It comes following Keir Starmer’s declaration that he can be prepared to place “boots on the ground” in Ukraine, which might inevitably be supported with air energy.

In an RAF inner briefing word titled “Opportunities for professional transfer to the pilot specialisation”, workers are inspired to switch due to a necessity for extra pilots “required for flying training”.

Mark Francois, the shadow Armed Forces minister, informed the Daily Mail: “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.

“All this really matters. If we are now going to see ‘jets in the sky’ defending any Ukrainian peace deal, then we need enough trained pilots to fly them.

“As we approach VE Day celebrations, it is worth remembering that the RAF never ran out of Spitfires or Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain, but we very nearly ran out of fighter pilots.”

Following the scandal, the RAF acknowledged that “some men experienced discrimination” with 31 people recognized as being prone to have missed out on a £5,000 becoming a member of bonus had they been capable of try to hitch.

An RAF spokesman informed the Daily Mail: “We have sufficient pilots and aircrew to conduct all current operations and service the front line.

“Additionally, active management of the flying training system has reduced training times and the backlog of student aircrew in the training pipeline.

“This good progress has enabled us to reopen aircrew applications for serving personnel.”

An RAF Spokesman mentioned: “These claims are nonsense. We have sufficient pilots and aircrew to conduct all current operations and service the front line.

“The past RAF recruitment discrimination issue has no relevance to pilot training or recruitment.

“We have made good progress in improving the flying training system which has enabled us to reopen aircrew applications for serving personnel. These improvements have reduced training times and shortened the backlog of student aircrew in the training pipeline.”