The RAF risks running short of pilots for operations over Libya as cuts to the defence budget threaten to undermine front-line operations, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
A British Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon jet lands at the Gioia del Colle Nato Airbase in southern Italy Photo: REUTERS By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent 9:45PM BST 28 Mar 2011
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Since the conflict began, a squadron of 18 RAF Typhoon pilots has enforced the Libya no-fly zone from an air base in southern Italy. However, a shortage of qualified fighter pilots means the RAF may not have enough to replace all of them when the squadron has to rotate in a few weeks.
The situation is so serious that the RAF has halted the teaching of trainee Typhoon pilots so instructors can be drafted on to the front line, according to air force sources. The handful of pilots used for air shows will also be withdrawn from displays this summer.
The shortage has arisen because cuts to the defence budget over the past decade have limited the number of pilots who have been trained to fly the new Typhoon.
There are also fewer newly qualified pilots coming through after the RAF was forced to cut a quarter of its trainee places due to cuts announced in last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review.
The Government’s decision to decommission HMS Ark Royal, Harrier jump jets and the Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft — all of which could have played a role in the Libya conflict — has exacerbated the problem. Serving RAF pilots contacted The Daily Telegraph to warn of the risks to the Libya operation. “We have a declining pool of pilots,” one said. “There’s less people to do twice as much work. If we are not training any more we are going to run out of personnel very soon.”
He added that halting Typhoon fighter pilot training was a “desperate measure” that could not go on “without making the Typhoon force unviable”.
Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, said: “There is a great concern in Parliament about the Government’s cuts to RAF pilots. We would be very worried if government cuts were to impede future operations.”
Out of 69 qualified RAF Typhoon pilots, including instructors, 18 are in southern Italy flying missions over Libya. Of the rest, 24 are committed to the Quick Reaction Alert protecting Britain’s air space and 12 are in the Falklands in a similar role. That leaves only 15 to replace those currently based in Italy.
Because of the intensity of flying on operations, pilots deploy for a maximum of two months at a time and the replacements for those currently enforcing the no-fly zone in Libya will be expected to deploy at the end of next month.
The RAF faces losing 5,000 serving personnel from its total of 42,000 under the strategic review. In the past six months, the posts for 48 Harrier pilots and 30 Tornado F3 fighter pilots have been lost, although the Ministry of Defence insists that all will be transferred to other flying posts within the RAF.
News of the Typhoon pilots shortage will come as a further embarrassment to the Government after it was forced to delay scrapping warships involved in the Libyan conflict.
Air Commodore Andrew Lambert, a former RAF pilot who flew over Bosnia and Iraq, said the campaign in Libya could become “unsustainable”.
“We should put a halt to all defence cuts,” he said. “It does not make sense. The world is getting less stable and if the Government cannot see that, we have a problem bordering on the irresponsible.”
Air Marshal Dick Garwood, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Operations, said there was no shortage of pilots. “We have enough aircraft and people to carry out all the tasks placed on us,” he said.
MoD sources suggested that the Libyan conflict vindicated the decision to retain the Tornado over the Harrier as there were more pilots in the pool and it had a greater reconnaissance and strike capability.
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