Quarter of UK's Apache mothballed

[Mil-26Man]

This rather significant Apache reduction appears to have slipped in under the radar....

UK mothballs quarter of Apache fleet with end of Afghan ops - IHS Jane's 360 (http://www.janes.com/article/50080/uk-mothballs-quarter-of-apache-fleet-with-end-of-afghan-ops)

[Lonewolf_50]

We used to refer a thing called a "war reserve" and if the long term preservation is done correctly, it makes sense from a budgeting and 'wear and tear' perspective.

[kenparry]

Does not look like a "war reserve" if they are removing bits to keep the others going.

[Just This Once...]

The terms 'Mothballing' and 'Cannibalisation' have different endgames….

[Mil-26Man]

I guess they're 'mothballed' up to the point of cannibalisation.

[Vendee]

The terms 'Mothballing' and 'Cannibalisation' have different endgames….Actually, the term they are using in this instance is "harvesting".

I don't think the Apache fleet reduction has "slipped under the radar". It has been known about for around two years. One of the 16 was the cat 4 wirestrike from a couple of years ago.

[Rotate too late]

Cat 4 indeed, apart from the pilots pants, sadly they were Cat 5......:}

[Thelma Viaduct]

From memory, wasn't it the case that quite a few of them were cannibalised from day 1?

How many were in Afghanistan at any one time?

[Vendee]

A lot of them were put into storage from new (I was told there wasn't enough trained pilots) and they were indeed robbed severely but they were eventualy restored to flying condition. I was involved in getting the last one flying again a few years ago and it only had 10 hours on it.

[melmothtw]

I don't think the Apache fleet reduction has "slipped under the radar". It has been known about for around two years.

I was involved in getting the last one flying again a few years ago

It's probably not news to you Vendee, as you appear to have the inside track on the UK's Apaches, but I'd suggest that for the rest of us (certainly myself) this mothballing wasn't announced ahead of time by the MoD, and there was certainly no announcement in January that it had taken place.

I've gone back to the SDSR 2010 document, to check the MoD's claim that this 'rationalisation' was set out then, and can find no reference whatsoever to an Apache reduction to 50 aircraft.

[Vendee]

Apologies Melmothtw. I had assumed that it must have been publicised in the UK press as it was being widely discussed in the fleet two years ago, although the actual draw down has only been happening in the past six months or so....... I was obviously wrong.

[melmothtw]

No problem Vendee. I've done a cursory Google search just to make sure I didn't miss it at the time, but unfortunately looking for 'Apache; 50; UK' just throws up a host of results on a 50cc quad bike called the Apache (who knew?).

Looking on Flight and Jane's though (most of AvWeek is behind a pay wall), I can't find any mentions of it before this story.