Since 1990 the Royal Air Force has suffered many airbase closures and sharp reductions in aircraft numbers; balanced by more than commensurate falls in spare-part holdings and support facilities. The Service has also been affected by fundamental organisational changes and by severe cuts in Service manpower, especially in logistics trades. Concurrently, annual support budgets have been restricted while operational commitments have grown more uncertain and demanding. Indeed, apart from sustaining a demanding flying effort with reduced resources, RAF logistics staff must now plan to support many rapid deployments and concurrent intensive operations from uncertain locations. This thesis examines factors leading up to the current state of affairs, concentrating on the combined impact of radical stockholding philosophies and new management stnlctures. Concurrent change throughout the aerospace industrial sector which repairs and overhauls many of the Service's most critical assets will also be examined. The text then evaluates current operational commitments from a stockholding and contracting perspective before assessing their most likely impact on existing repair chains. The study evaluates the current state of repair facilities at airbase, depot and industrial levels to assess their overall potential for timely expansion. It then develops and critically analyses various alternate support options which may also serve to minimise the impact of stock shortages on operational effectiveness. Drawing on the combined findings of a survey of over 400 current RAF repair contracts and several complementary surveys, the study examines common features within current industrial repair processes. It then highlights procedural, contractual and corporate factors which now stand to hinder any acceleration of repair output in times of crisis. The work also assesses a number of present initiatives to improve repair processes and to concentrate planning around emergency rather than routine requirements. This unique and far-ranging work closes with an assessment of modern mathematical modelling techniques, areas for further study, overall conclusions and recommendations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent the level of coping skills, internal resources, social support, perception and pile-up of life events affect Air Force families’ adjustments after relocation. The major objectives were threefold: (a) to assess which of the husbands' and wives' strengths and resources contributed to the family's adjustment to the stress associated with permanent change of station moves, (b) to explore whether wives' levels of coping are critical to family adjustment and (c) to determine if the types and/or levels of coping used are significantly different at two points in time after the move. A secondary objective was an exploration through factor analyses of the construct validity for this population of four of the measures used: FACES, Quality of Life, Ways of Coping Checklist and Social Support Inventory. Results showed that for the husbands and wives pile-up of life events had a significant inverse relationship to mean Quality of Life with Displacement/Denial, FACES and Perception also correlated for the wives. For both husbands and wives, the FACES discrepancy score was significantly correlated with the discrepancy Quality of Life score with pile-up and Reframing also correlated for the wives. Controlling for the influence of the moderator variables, pile-up of life events was significantly correlated with mean Quality of Life for the husbands while pile-up and Social Support were correlated for the wives. The wives had pile-up, Reframing, Discrepancy FACES and Self-focused Coping which showed a significant correlation with discrepancy Quality of Life. Wives showed a greater use of several types of coping including Positive Focus, Social Support, Displacement/Denial and Reframing while the husbands showed a greater use of coworkers for social support and Problem-focused Coping. A higher usage of special groups for social support was the only difference found between the individuals who had moved at different points in time. In addition, the results provided further empirical support for the Double ABCX Family Stress Model. Suggestions were made for interventions to help to alleviate the stress of moving for the military family.

Little has been written about the Territorial Air Force (TAF) as a voluntary military organisation and no sustained analysis of its recruitment and social composition undertaken. Made up of three different parts, the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF), the Special Reserve (SR) and the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR), these three separate and different groups have not featured significantly in existing literature. Current historiography of the AAF and SR is dominated by the experiences of 600 and 601 Squadrons based in London and presents a popular image of a gentleman's flying club, whilst that of the RAFVR presents an image of a much more egalitarian institution, intended to be a citizens’ air force. This thesis presents new and detailed research into the recruitment and social backgrounds of men serving in both the pre and post-war TAF. It seeks to provide an overview of the social composition of all AAF and SR squadrons and offers a case study of 608 (North Riding) Squadron based at Thornaby Aerodrome between 1930 and 1957. Using primary documents from the National Archives (TNA) and recently digitised press records, it explores the recruitment processes, social backgrounds and social relations of personnel in the TAF. Whilst focusing primarily on officers, it looks too at the experience of non-officer recruits. Its findings indicate that the structures and cultures of the AAF and SR squadrons were indeed similar to the well-publicised London squadrons, whilst those for the RAFVR were much more elite than was expected. Military voluntarism continued to play a key role in the defence of twentieth-century Britain, but the underlying tensions and weaknesses associated with a class-based voluntary culture meant that the TAF had to change in response to new pressures. The thesis charts how these changes began to manifest themselves in the post-war world. Class ceased to be the key determining factor in the recruitment of officers as the organisations faced new challenges. Within both the AAF and the RAFVR the pre-war impression of a gentlemen's flying club finally gave way to a more meritocratic culture in the post-war world.

This thesis explores the life and work of General Bernard Schriever, principally with regard to his work introducing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) into United States Air Force (USAF) service during the 1950s, and his related efforts to develop systems for manned and unmanned military spaceflight. It situates his life and work in the early Cold War of the 20th Century, and through exploitation of the Schriever Archive at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and recently declassified US Government documents, principally those released by the National Reconnaissance Office, it seeks to explore his understanding of the strategic context of his work. It posits that to introduce a technically advanced system into military service, it is necessary to evaluate both technical and non-technical risks to progress, and to possess or achieve sufficient administrative control to reduce those risks and improve overall programme maturity in both domains. By considering Schriever's successful introduction of ICBMs into USAF service and his management of the early USAF reconnaissance satellite programmes, it demonstrates his understanding of all three facets of progress. It then examines two areas where Schriever failed to achieve his stated goals, firstly in his attempts to develop a military manned spaceflight programme in parallel with the national programme being run by NASA and secondly in respect of his advocacy for space weaponization. In each case, it shows that Schriever's failures can be explained by insufficient progress along one or more of the identified lines of activity. Recently declassified US Government sources, and the Schriever archive in the Library of Congress, which includes unpublished book-length manuscripts by Schriever and co-authors, are used to corroborate his views. The thesis concludes by critiquing the analytic model used and suggesting alternative sources that might shed further light on Schriever's work.

No description available.

This doctoral research project examines the effects that geographical transience has on Royal Air Force families. The methodology employed in this exploratory and qualitative study consisted largely of open-ended interview questions but also included a series of demographic variables. In total, 29 RAF personnel without families, 33 RAF personnel with families, 33 RAF spouses, and 15 RAF children participated in this research (N = 110). All respondents volunteered to take part in the study and were based in the United Kingdom at the time of data collection. The interviews were transcribed and content coded according to six major relocation themes arising from the literature (change, tasks, support, coping, difficulty, and outcome). QSR NVIVO 2.0, a qualitative data analysis software package, was used to facilitate the process. Through the utilisations of qualitative methodology, the researcher was able to offer various novel and reoccurring variables that appear to play an important role (at least subjectively) in relocation. Additionally, frequencies associated with these factors were presented. The findings were integrated with those from the literature in order to offer an initial comparison and differentiation between civilian and military samples. The main theoretical contributions were the introduction of the concept of mobile mentality, the creation of a novel relocation model that takes familial interaction into account, and the development of a taxonomy for the classification of relocation outcomes. Finally, additional observations, recommendations for future research, and practical implications are reviewed.

This thesis describes a simulation model of fighter operations, and sets it in the context of a hierarchy of defence models. The fighter model is then applied to two problems which developed from an assessment of the contribution of sensors to the air defence of the UK. These concern the influence of raid indirect routing and sensor information accuracy on the intercept capability of fighters scrambled from ground alert. Mathematical models of these two aspects of fighter operations are also developed; this dual approach ensures that the studies are both analytically understandable and operationally acceptable. Examples are given of the number of fighters from a single base which could intercept a concentrated (point) raid against a single offset target . In the case of raid indirect routing the main variables are the angle of the incoming feint track and the warning distance. In the analysis of the effect of sensor information errors the main variables are the actual position of the raid when warning is given and the errors in raid coordinates, heading and speed due to degradation of the warning system. In both cases of indirect routing and information errors alternative scramble and control procedures are considered. The work described in this thesis is a step towards an attempt to determine the more favourable procedures which a fighter force might adopt in the face of subtle raid tactics and degraded sensor performance. It also provides an illustration of the interplay between mathematical methods and computer models in the analysis of fighter operations.

This thesis is a participant observer and action research case study of the Royal Air Force’s efforts to improve its senior leadership from2007 to 2010. It addresses the research question: what are the conditions required to establish an egalitarian team in a military hierarchy? It examines the establishment of the Senior Leadership Team, designed to operate as a forum for the dissemination of the leader’s intent, dissemination of information, and generation of ideas. The literature review argues there are four bodies of relevant knowledge that derive from the research question: forming large teams, use of power, changing culture, and building interpersonal trust. From the literature, two models are considered, one for formation of large teams and another for establishing an egalitarian culture in a hierarchy. The theoretical position to examine the case study from is a combination of the four areas and the two models. The conclusions emphasise the need for leadership and facilitation to deal with the issues of behaviour; charade of cooperation; homogeneity and heterogeneity; effects of power, particularly on trust; group size paradox; and creating open discussion. The thesis argues, in this context, culture is akin to organisational identity and it examines how culture might be changed and sustained in a strict hierarchical organisation to ensure open discussion where all opinions are equal. The thesis identifies the fundamental importance of interpersonal trust for large informational or consultative teams that hold a different culture to their host organisation. In conclusion, the thesis argues that the models examined do not provide an adequate framework for this case study and tentatively puts forward a 7-factor model representing the conditions required to establish an egalitarian team in a military hierarchy.

Research into air power history has grown in popularity, but much of this scholarship centres on operational activities with little study into matters of support, especially logistics; this paucity of research is particularly evident with regards to the British Royal Air Force (RAF). This thesis examines RAF logistics during the Second World War through five research questions, under the generic themes of Transformation, Sustainment and Flexibility. Its research methodology is innovative in that it uses an inter-disciplinary approach through the use of a management science model to conduct an historical study. First, it considers how the RAF’s logistics organisation came into being and how it was shaped by the Royal Flying Corps’ experience during the First World War. The inter-war years are then examined with particular emphasis on how the Expansion Programme of the mid to late 1930s shaped the logistics organisation, up to the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. The thesis then takes a detailed look at how RAF logistics was organised and how it operated its supply chain throughout the war including: manning, command and control, procurement, warehousing and transport. The final part of the thesis examines how logistic services were provided to the front line, both at home and overseas.