RAF cuts Announced as UK Mulls Libya No-fly Zone

Two Nimrod MRA4 reconnaissance aircraft at the BAE Systems factory at Woodford in Cheshire on February 1, 2011. Nine new RAF Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft, which cost nearly £4bn to build, are being dismantled behind giant screens at BAE Woodford. Six former military chiefs of staff said destroying the spy planes opened a 'massive gap in British security'. Unions have also condemned the destruction. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

It was a harsh irony that didn’t escape the notice of political foes. As talk swelled on helping create a no-fly zone over Libya, the Air Force announced job cuts, which include axing 170 trainee pilots.

The Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday that the first wave of redundancies will be made in September as part of an 11,000 cull of jobs in the Armed Forces.

The RAF is the first service to set out its slice of the austerity cuts, in which it will shed 2,700 posts, with 1,020 losing their jobs in September. 

“We did not take any of these decisions lightly,” said David Cameron at a news conference on Tuesday, “and they will have a difficult impact on the people involved in the RAF, the Navy and the Army and their families, and we will do everything we can to help them. But it is right to make the decision.”

Mr Cameron held fast to his usual justification of austerity cuts, laying the blame at the feet of the previous Labour government, which he said had overspent by £38 billion on defence. He pointed out that even after the cuts, the UK would have the fourth largest defence force in the world.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the force needed restructuring to allow it to be “sufficiently flexible and adaptable to meet the demands of an uncertain future”.

“The decisions we are making are not easy but they will help to defend the UK, protect our interests overseas, and enable us to work effectively with allies and partners to deliver greater security and stability in the wider world,” he said in a statement.

Members of the Armed Forces on operations, in training to be deployed, or recovering from a mission, will escape the cull, but those due back from Afghanistan in April still run the risk of losing their jobs.

Up to 170 trainee pilots will be cut, but the RAF says no qualified pilots will be affected.

One hundred posts will go from the Weapons System Officers Branch, 100 from the Weapons System Operator Trade, and 529 ground staff will be cut.

Two Tornado squadrons will be disbanded - 14 Squadron based at Lossiemouth in Moray, and 13 Squadron from Marham in Norfolk.

The Ministry of Defence said in a statement: “The disbandment of these squadrons does not mean that their personnel will automatically be made redundant. In the short term they will be found alternative employment. The RAF anticipates that the majority will be found other permanent roles, although not necessarily in their current location.”

Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy said personnel currently serving in Afghanistan should not return to the threat of redundancy.

Mr Murphy told the BBC: “It’s remarkable that in the week when the prime minister and the government are talking about a no-fly zone over Libya, amid all the turmoil that’s happening there, they now turn their attention to our own RAF and sack so many trainee pilots.”