RAF defends using high-paid officers as stand-ins for staff guarding gates
The Royal Air Force has defended the decision to use officers earning up to Ā£60,000 a year to pull guard duty at RAF Cranwell due to a shortage of security staff.
The personnel are having to do the job as there is a lack of staff in the Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), which the RAF does not control.
Sky News reported that, as a result, many flight lieutenants at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire feel "undervalued and disenfranchised".
The MPGs is the UK Armed Forces guarding service and is deployed across all military establishments across Britain.
And an RAF spokesperson said when the MPGS cannot undertake the role it is "sometimes necessary to draw on our highly capable personnel" to do it.
"Every member of the RAF has an operational mindset and understands that control of entry to our units is key to ensuring that we protect our people, infrastructure and assets from potential threats so we are always ready to fly and fight," they said.
"Personnel of all ranks are trained to undertake Force Protection duties when required as part of our operational resilience."
They added that individual units work out "how best to use their workforce to maintain security", but refused to comment on details.
Cranwell is the RAF's officer and aircrew training site, meaning it does have a higher percentage of officers than other bases.
MPGS personnel are military personnel, with the service recruiting re-joiners with previous regular or reserve service from any of the three services.
There is a dedicated recruitment team for the service, however the shortcomings in staff has, according to the Sky News report, left personnel wondering whether service chiefs are ensuring the RAF is combat-ready.
The RAF responded by outlining the fact that it is always ready to fly and to fight.
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