The Great British Helicopter Crisis

[lefty]

Some of you may not know that there is a huge fuss about lack of resources for our boys in Afghanistan, and helicopters in particular. Recently, our main military man was obliged to use a U.S. chopper for a tour of inspection because there wasn't a British one available.

Last week the Times ran a story which makes alarming reading, particularly regarding our fleet of Chinooks,which, incidentally, are highly-rated machines.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/wilkofife/chinook.jpg

The RAF have 40 Chinooks, of which 13 are in Afghanistan. The remaining 27 are somewhere in the UK, either in deep maintenance (apparently it takes 6 months to service one of these) or have no crews to fly them.

In addition, and here's the crazy bit, we bought 8 sophisticated digital HC3A's in 2001 at a cost of £259m. In the succeeding 8 years, they have not turned a rotor, because apparently we failed to tell Boeing that we needed the software to fly them. The solution ? Simple. We have them 'reverted' to HC3R's, at a cost of a mere £90m. God knows when they will be ready.

In the meantime, it seemed a good idea to patch up some aged Pumas to keep them staggering on a bit longer. So we have this done, at a cost of £300m, where ? UK ? No, Romania. The mind boggles.

The taxpayer will doubtless be stumping up more cash for this campaign, which most of us do not grudge, until we hear stories of bungling incompetence like this. If you think the Pentagon's bad...........

[Motormouse]

The RAF have 40 Chinooks, of which 13 are in Afghanistan. The remaining 27 are somewhere in the UK, either in deep maintenance (apparently it takes 6 months to service one of these) or have no crews to fly them.

Another Govt cock-up,all to do with 'privatising' service contracts, the contractors do it at a huge profit by employing semi-skilled workers not
highly trained and skilled aviation techies like there used to be in the Forces,in addition,because they are private contractors they dont have priority access to replacement parts either.


In addition, and here's the crazy bit, we bought 8 sophisticated digital HC3A's in 2001 at a cost of £259m. In the succeeding 8 years, they have not turned a rotor, because apparently we failed to tell Boeing that we needed the software to fly them. The solution ? Simple. We have them 'reverted' to HC3R's, at a cost of a mere £90m. God knows when they will be ready.

...

Blame for this lies solely with the current PM,Gordon Brown, when he was chancellor, it were decided the 'software' could be written elsewhere cheaper than Boeing could supply it, provided Boeing provided the necessary 'interface' information....enter Marconi,Ferranti et al...and guess what, software don't work..

ttfn

[Helldiver]

Boeing has built 1179 Chinooks. I would think that we could spare a hundred or so to help our close allies in the U.K.
If Sir Winston was in 10 Downing street, there would be no doubt it happening. All Brown has to do is ask.

[R C CAWTE]

Here at Middle Wallop we have Lynx and Gazelle choppers sitting around doing nothing or buzzing my house along with Apaches day and night.Some of the best pilots in the UK are based there also.What would be wrong with some of those to help make up numbers.
I hear that the company that repairs and refits these choppers have not even employed enough staff to fill the positions needed so lightly damaged birds sit around for months whilst our troops are dying.The mind boggles.:isadizzy:

[hewman100]

It's a case of trying to be all things to all people. It's no good cutting the country's armed forces to the bone and then expecting them to do an effective job without the right tools to do it.