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i am thinking of joing the Raf Regiment next year, i have been told that all they do is guard planes and patrol air bases all day everyday, is this true or is there alot mor to the Regiment?

Hi Jaffa,
If you go to www.arrse.co.uk, their have been some incredibly long threads on the merits of RAF Regiment versus Marines and Army Infantry, I will try and look out a few useful threads for you.
From my admittedly limited knowledge the role of the RAF Regiment is alot different from other infantry units. Some people will have you believe that they just 'big time it round airfields', but the fact of the matter is they do a very different job to normal infantry units.
It seems to me you are unlikely to get many tours in the regiment, and even then your primarily role will be airfield security, however this is just my initial impression.
Hope this helps

Albert

Jaffa

I don't know from experience but from what I have been told by many reliable sources, this is not all they do all day, everyday. Search the forums, there is some good stuff on hear. Also search out raf_reginald. He is very knowledgable and answers all of your questions in a very informative way to the best of his ability.

You may have the opportunity to train cadets in your career. I'm at Cranwell and we get taught the basics such as first aid and weapons drill by the Regiment guys.

Won't get the chance for many tours are you real!? You won't get the chance for much time in the UK is a more realistic statement. RAF Regt. do a load of gucci stuff, believe me.

What kind of gucci stuff?

wannabe_bootneck wrote:Won't get the chance for many tours are you real!? You won't get the chance for much time in the UK is a more realistic statement. RAF Regt. do a load of gucci stuff, believe me.

Had a couple of people I know who are ex RAF Regt both spoke very highly of it and had a good time, one went for SF but didn't make it although maybe others could advise if it's still a good route in?

well they are like the airforces bodyguards on the ground, they do patrol and may get frontline action but very rarely even though they are well prepared for it

It’s a bit of a misnomer to say that RAF Regt guard airfields, yes they do, but they do it by dominating the ground outside of deployed airfields, sometimes many 100’s of square Km, using offensive Infantry tactics. The generic term is Force Protection (FP).

Currently the RAF Regt is running concurrent ops so troops are away an awful lot. I’m not going to go into specifics here, but suffice to say many thousands of rounds are being fired by RAF Regt Gnrs in defence of their AO.

But to be fair, they cannot be compared to regular Infantry units because they are 'fixed', whilst the Infantry Company depends on manoeuvre. However, the Army is finding to its cost that you need sound FP before you can begin to manoeuvre.

An RAF Regt Field Sqn is extremely well equipped with ISTAR and combat power, much more so than its Infantry counter part - an Infantry Company.

Training and fitness standards are similar to the Infantry, however the RAF Regt requires its troops to be much more Air Aware, and familiar with Air Power doctrine than base line Infantry units. Additionally experience shows that pound for pound an RAF Regt Gnr is more intelligent that his Infantry counterpart, of course the Army may argue this point, but I know through experience it is true. The majority of Gnrs are extremely well trained, well equipped and well looked after; there are some bad apples and wasters obviously, but in such a small community they are soon found out.

Where the RAF Regt does differ however, is in its approach to its lower ranks. Living accommodation and working environments (when not deployed on Ops) are of a much higher standard, and initiative and independent thought is encouraged rather than discouraged.
One other point, in the RAF Regt you could have a career till 55, as opposed to being forcibly retired at 40, may seem a long way off, but it soon comes round.

The RAF Regt is not better than the Infantry, the Infantry is not better than the RAF Regt, they do different jobs. However the RAF Regt has been on constant active service since its formation in 1942, not many Corps in the British Military can claim the same. My ten penneth, for what it is worth and I apologise for the long post. I suspect this will draw the usual, and predictable, RAF Regt haters from the other services, but again experience tells me this can be a touch of the green-eyed monster.

Long Timer.

Another point is that to join RAF Regt there is now a requirement for 2 gcse's in english and maths, compared to the infantry where there is no requirement.

SHOOT_ME wrote:Another point is that to join RAF Regt there is now a requirement for 2 gcse's in english and maths, compared to the infantry where there is no requirement.

No there isn't!?

Wellybob2 wrote:

SHOOT_ME wrote:Another point is that to join RAF Regt there is now a requirement for 2 gcse's in english and maths, compared to the infantry where there is no requirement.

No there isn't!?

There was 16 months ago, when that post was made. Smartarse.

Long Timer wrote:

Wellybob2 wrote:

SHOOT_ME wrote:Another point is that to join RAF Regt there is now a requirement for 2 gcse's in english and maths, compared to the infantry where there is no requirement.

No there isn't!?

There was 16 months ago, when that post was made. Smartarse.

Well I didn't happen to look at the date! A mistake, no need for that, I hardly said it in a way to offend but you feel you need to do so to me?

Wellybob2 wrote:

Long Timer wrote:

Wellybob2 wrote: No there isn't!?

There was 16 months ago, when that post was made. Smartarse.

Well i didn't happen to look at the date! A mistake, No need for that, i hardly said it in a way to offend but you feel you need to do so to me?

What you mean and what people think you mean can be different.

How was PGAC?

LT

on the AST whats the Pass mark on the test? anyone know?