Hi all,
If a civilian wanted to propose an idea about a military unit to the Air Force with whom would they have to talk to ?
Thats a question with a lot of very different answers, all Militaries have highly qualified Civilians working for them. You don’t need to be in uniform to be a highly qualified Military expert. For the average person on the street you can publicly put proposals up on forums like this or you can forward letters to your DOD, but actually getting into seeing someone in a high enough position that matters would be nigh on impossible in most Militaries, due to the fact that there is a lot of Armchair “Experts” out there and a open door policy for advice would simply not work.
In my Country Australia, the GOTD does a Defence White Paper, approx once a decade or so and will ask for submissions and anyone can submit a proposal but the only way any proposal would get anywhere it would have to be professionaly put together..
To be absolutely and totally honest, the chances of a proposal from a random person with an idea for a Military unit or equipment getting anywhere, is not very good, the chances are they have already looked at and rejected the idea for any number of reasons incl Cost, doesn’t fit CONOPS, doesn’t fit within the Structure of that Military, can’t be supported within that nation, it goes against that Nations Culture(Woman in Combat and a anti Nuclear stand are 2 common ones)).