Update: My titling of the Chinook below, '10% of our helicopter lift capability', is too HIGH. A General in theatre has confirmed to Andrew Neil (BBC's Daily Politics). There are TEN helicopters in Helmand, two of which are allocated to the Special Forces.
And Gordon Brown's constant refrain of a 60% increase in helicopter numbers equals FOUR of the ten.
5 comments:
Comment lifted from GF - cannot say how accurate it
"The eight Chinook Mk3 special forces helicopters purchased in 1996 will potentially cost £363 Million when (if) they become operational.
The Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Defence and the PUS for Defence Procurement stated that some of these helicopters will be available at the end of the year.
ZH*** has just entered the beginning of flight trials. Aircraft 2-8 are in various states of reversion and aircraft 8 has been cannibalised to such an extent that it is very unlikely that it will ever become operational.
The likelihood of any of these aircraft being ready and available for operations this year is very slim. The aircrews have to be trained and flight certified, the ground crews have to be trained and certified. The aircraft has to be released as fit to fly and has to be retrofitted with the required DAS equipment that is still in trial at ********* ****to get it to theatre entry standard".
They've had them since 1996 and they are still not operational,nor have they trained crews?!?!?
wv. modosy
Apparently we are imminently expecting delivery of a pair of ballistas ordered in 1492, although they were becoming outdated by gunpowder technology when we ordered them. There didn't seem to be much point in training a crew as they would long since have passed to the land of their fathers by the time the machines were delivered.
The ballistas are expected to make a significant contribution to the new low-carbon warfare we might have to engage in when the oil is all gone.
The Chinooks are being converted to run on chip-fat as the army remains stubbornly attached to fried food, even in the hottest theatre of war.
We get through just about enough chippolatas to power them from the sausage-juice run-off.
Help. I need an idiot's guide to helicopters. It would help the Minister of Defence, too.
Mrs Raft,
I will work on the list but from memory the possible helicopters we have in service are:
Chinooks
Apache attack helicopters (fortunately made by the Americans)
Merlins
Lynx
To be honest we'd have been better off buying American kit from the '50's on.
I will publish a full Order of Battle for the British forces in Afghanistan, then we can start trying to work out where they all are.
Many thanks.
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