Page 121 - Demo

121hands) where a full blown FTS was set up. The RAF was now asked to provide QFIs and, together with the existing contract pilots, they were tasked with training Omanis. By the end of 1978 there were eleven Omani pilots in service and there has been a steady output since then. However, with the introduction of the Jaguar and the expansion of the helicopter and transport fleets the demand for pilots exceeded supply. Hence the call for more Loan Service, which the RAF could not fully meet %u2013 partly on availability grounds, since volunteers to serve for up to two years unaccompanied were not exactly arriving in droves %u2013 and partly on cost grounds. The RAF could not afford to run light and the overall loan service budget was becoming increasingly stretched. The shortfall in personnel was often made up from recently retired RAF and RN aircrew, supplemented by others from, for instance, the South African and Rhodesian Air Forces. In the early 1980s the advent of an integrated air defence system and the acquisition of Rapier gave rise to the need for fighter controllers and RAF Regiment specialists and thus the need for more Loan Service personnel. SOAF established an Ops Branch which encompassed both FC and ATC disciplines aiming at complete inter8changeability %u2013 an admirable concept, albeit unfamiliar to RAF eyes. A SOAF Rapier.