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Engineering in the armed forces few questions

First post on this forum hoping to get some useful information, so I have been really considering engineering in the armed forces specifically electronic and I would like to work with aircraft however I cannot decide wether the army, navy or raf would be best suited so I have a few questions :

1.) which one will travel the most and go on operations?i don't want to be stuck in the UK forever I would like to travel

2.) which one has a better way of life ie accommodation, facilities,food etc

3.) which will give me a better chance of finding a civilian job if I do decide to leave after the required service time

4.) will I be able to work with fixed wing aircraft in the navy (f35) or is it just in the raf that you could work with fixed wing?

5.) is it better to join as an officer or not?do officer do any actual engineering if you know what I mean or is it more of a desk job?

Please take a look and any answer or opinions would be appreciated

Thanks
Original post by Pjackson758
First post on this forum hoping to get some useful information, so I have been really considering engineering in the armed forces specifically electronic and I would like to work with aircraft however I cannot decide wether the army, navy or raf would be best suited so I have a few questions :

1.) which one will travel the most and go on operations?i don't want to be stuck in the UK forever I would like to travel

2.) which one has a better way of life ie accommodation, facilities,food etc

3.) which will give me a better chance of finding a civilian job if I do decide to leave after the required service time

4.) will I be able to work with fixed wing aircraft in the navy (f35) or is it just in the raf that you could work with fixed wing?

5.) is it better to join as an officer or not?do officer do any actual engineering if you know what I mean or is it more of a desk job?

Please take a look and any answer or opinions would be appreciated

Thanks


This is a quick reply so apologies for the terseness.

Bottom line, you want to work on aircraft, join the Air Force.

1) Navy will send you away more, just on ships. RAF and Army aircraft are much of a muchness deployment wise.

2) RAF

3) If you manage to get your civvy licences, then any of the services will be the same.

4) Army has a few Islanders, Navy has a few Hawks. RAF has a shedload of fixed-wing aircraft. Join the RAF

5) If you want to get your hands dirty, join as an Aircraft Technician (Avionics or Electrical) and not an Officer.
Reply 2
Original post by Pjackson758
First post on this forum hoping to get some useful information, so I have been really considering engineering in the armed forces specifically electronic and I would like to work with aircraft however I cannot decide wether the army, navy or raf would be best suited so I have a few questions :

1.) which one will travel the most and go on operations?i don't want to be stuck in the UK forever I would like to travel

2.) which one has a better way of life ie accommodation, facilities,food etc

3.) which will give me a better chance of finding a civilian job if I do decide to leave after the required service time

4.) will I be able to work with fixed wing aircraft in the navy (f35) or is it just in the raf that you could work with fixed wing?

5.) is it better to join as an officer or not?do officer do any actual engineering if you know what I mean or is it more of a desk job?

Please take a look and any answer or opinions would be appreciated

Thanks


Right... I can run you through submarine engineer jobs as I served on them under the weapons engineering umbrella.

1. Travel wise on submarines you could come alongside at most international ports. Popular stop offs include: UAE, Barhain, Seychelles, Crete, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Brest, den helder, Bergen, Lisbon. There are many more than this, It is not an exhaustive list.

2. Facilities, food etc: Depends if going officer or rating. The accommodation in Drake (Plymouth) is phenomenal. It's like living in a travel lodge. All with Wi-Fi, double bed, en suite. It's pretty new by military standards. I have stayed in some **** holes in my time on army bases and it's a different league. I can't speak for all army bases. Keohe barracks was a shocker. Horrible.
For food when alongside, as a rating, you would eat in the galley, although you do have a choice to eat out whenever. Total freedom in that respect. The food used to come out of your wages and it was fill your boots before but now it's pay as you dine. Civilian chefs cook alongside in the galley. Quality is decent. Get a choice of salad bar, carvery, vegetarian etc. Plenty of duffs (puddings) too.
The officers eat in the officers mess and it's all formal attire in there. It's a table service affair as far as I know. Can't tell you about type of food in there as I never used it as I was a rating.

3. Civvy job. This is where choices come in. Depending on which branch of engineering you take will depend on the job you could get. If you go marine engineering officer or rating you will get your nuclear tickets as it is their job to maintain thereactor oonboard. The reactor is fuelled by U235. Some pretty potent stuff. You will never be out of work within the nuclear power industry or commercial shipping sector. They maintain all engines, propulsion, all tanks including ballast and fresh water. Sanitation would be part of your role too. On submarines you won't stay in one role constantly. You switch around to get qualified of all forms of engineering within the branch.
Weapons engineering is a fwd end only job, which means you will be maintaining electronic systems including internal and external comms. This stretches to satellite equipment, vlf/lf reception equipmebt alongside the masts and perriscopes that work alongside them. IT onboard is a WE task too. I can't really go into much detail on this bit for obvious reasons but you will be in charge of the weapons systems including the spearfish torpedosand tthe TLASs. Leaving the service from this role would set you in good stead for telecommunications companies, electronics and security services. You will have to undertake a DV security clearance too for this role and I've known of many people getting jobs using that asset alone

4 not a clue, sorry

5. Everyone onboard a submarine gets their hands dirty at some point. The MEO - marine engineering officer is constantly in overalls digging out. WEO is a less dirty job as its all FWD end work. To enter as an officer onboard the submarine you will need an engineering or science based degree, as a rating you don't. If you can enter as officer I would suggest that. Pay wise, on submarines it's the highest paid section of all three forces. During deployments you are awarded Ops pay, sweat pay as an ME, nuclear pay, submarine pay etc and it all adds up. Qualified status as a rating after 4 years service I was taking around 34k a year home and I got not special allowances because I had a nice clean, use my brain job. MEO will be the highest paid and he is touching 100k with all extras.


To finish off..... I loved it. I would have been in the life but circumstances forced me out (health)
You are looked after in there fully. You will never need for anything. If you play a sport you can join ateam and travel the world with them. They have ddifferent training going on for alsorts constantly. For example, say you want to get your sailing qualsno problem. Trip to somewhere nice and sail a yacht for a few weeks. You will go to sea for 3/4 months at a time usually although you could be out for 9 months depending on role. Come back loadedtthough. Living in Plymouth isn't bad either. Plenty to do there and some classy restaurants and bars. If you want to know anything else just ask mate and I will try my best to answer for you.
Reply 5
Engineer Officer (Aerosystems): moved every couple of years and did a wide variety of jobs. You won't really be getting your hands dirty, but you do need to have a good understanding of the technical side as you can be making - sometimes explaining, sometimes defending - decisions that could have a major impact on life and limb. Hence I sometimes got my coveralls on and went out with my guys to see what jobs involved. I've done normal office hours and nominally 12-hour (usually longer) days/nights. I've run shifts of 50-60 personnel maintaining and repairing equipment and during 2 tours on aircraft squadrons (fast jet and transport). I've also done office-based jobs where I've written technical documents; managed contracts; overseen the introduction into service of new aircraft; run a project for upgrade of aircraft radars; and saved the RAF a fortune and stopped a lot of aborted missions by solving a major problem on Tornado engines. How much you travel is a bit of a lottery; the fast jet squadron was only on UK-based exercises during my time, but got regular trips to Oman with TriStar and that led to a deployment to the Falklands. Even with the office jobs I got out and about to other stations and visits to industry.

As an officer you'll also have wider responsibilities such as management of any staff (their welfare, discipline and career progression), quality assurance and health and safety.

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