RAF chiefs are sending wannabe Top Guns to Italy for key training due to a shortage of British instructors as the forces’ recruitment and retention crisis deepens.
The shock move means rookie pilots will get their advanced tuition 1,200 miles away from headquarters at Decimomannu airbase in Sardinia.
The deal to use “international instructors” was agreed a fortnight ago in a desperate bid to tackle a backlog of student pilots, who are facing waits of up to a year for training slots.
Hundreds more trainees have been put on hold while waiting to progress and it is believed one reason for the crisis is instructors leaving for higher-paid roles in commercial aviation.
RAF instructors can earn up to £75,000 – but civilian airline captains can trouser double that.
The disclosure on the Italy link-up came after Britain agreed to help train Ukrainians to fly US F-16 combat jets – which RAF chiefs say could further impact already stretched resources.
Former RAF flying instructor Tim Davies branded our training programme a “scandal” and warned it could threaten national security.
He told us: “Very soon, unless the RAF sorts its flying training system out, it is not going to have a front line with which to win wars.
“The most important thing is to prioritise the training of instructors. Unless you have enough, you can’t train students.
“It’s taking seven-and-a-half years to get students through fast jet training whereas in the US it takes about two-and-a-half. It is a scandal. This crisis also raises the question as to how the RAF is going to train Ukrainian pilots when it can’t train enough of its own.”
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, the head of the RAF, was pictured signing the training agreement last month with Italian counterpart Lt General Luca Goretti.
The first UK cohort will head to the International Flight Training School next month. Run by Italy’s air force in collaboration with a civilian company, it trains pilots from Nato countries, including Germany and Canada.
Pilots will have their most important training there – Phase 4, or advanced jet instruction, which lasts 54 weeks and consists of 94 hours of training in combat conditions. The UK’s military flying training is beset by delays, meaning that students wait months, or even years, to pass the different phases of study.
These range from basic flying to training on a specific aircraft. A leaked document last week revealed that of 770 aircrew trainees, 490 are between courses or holding.
And Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, head of air staff, has told MPs the decision to train Ukrainian pilots might impact the UK.
He told the Defence Select Committee: “We have not quite worked out yet with the Ukrainians exactly what that is going to look like.
“Until we understand that, we cannot absolutely understand the impact it will have on our flying training system, because clearly it will require capacity.” The training crisis worsened in January when the RAF’s entire fleet of Hawk T2 training jets was grounded.
Engineers found Rolls-Royce engine blades on the Hawks were wearing out sooner than expected.
Documents leaked last year also revealed issues with Hawks and a “damaging drain” of flying instructors quitting had helped push the RAF’s fast jet pilot training into a new crisis.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace tasked Sir Mike with fixing flying training as his only priority more than three years ago.
Last year, it emerged up to 30 pilots had left the RAF to train Chinese fighter pilots for around £250,000 a year. Beijing’s recruitment of RAF pilots, which was not illegal, began in 2019.
And last week it emerged the RAF paid out £5,000 to 31 white men discriminated against while trying to join. A leaked email revealed they were called “useless white male pilots”, exposing pressure to boost diversity. The total size of the armed forces, including reserves, is 190,170 – down 7,000 in a year.
The PM has said we will have 200,000 troops after the next defence review – but the Army is due to be cut from 82,000 to around 72,000 in the coming months.
The Ministry of Defence ’s Continuous Attitude Survey found troops are suffering from low morale and dissatisfaction with senior leaders and the quality of housing. Satisfaction with pay was also the lowest since the survey launched in 2015.
The RAF said: “The RAF constantly reviews the flying training pipeline and introduces measures to strike the best balance between supply and demand for new pilots. This has led to an arrangement to send a small number of trainees to the International Flight Training School in Italy. The RAF is investigating how it can provide elementary training in the UK as part of an international effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly combat aircraft. This will not affect our own pilot training, using capacity within the current system. Further details cannot be released at this stage.”
It added: “There is no shortage of trained or trainee pilots, nor any form of threat to security. The front line is fully manned and the flying training pipeline is producing the pilots we need, when we need them.
“In summary, there is no issue with pilot availability now and we do not foresee there being one in the future.”
