An interesting topic this one and on a subject that is very dear to my heart at the moment. What exactly are the 8 x BLUH in an Attack Helicopter Regt for?
My personal thoughts are something like:
1. Liaison - moving various members of the Sqns/BG/Bde around for O-groups etc.
2. Limited movement of men and materiel - vital spares, special tools, replacement crews, MPS, etc.
3. Recce - of FARPs, FOBs, etc
4. Airborne C2/Relay - probably a Sqn/BG Comd team in the back ideally with the same display as in the AH. Having seen a few 16 Bde exercises I believe that this will be a v important task.
5. CSAR - maybe?
As part of an Inf (Para!) BG also probably used to insert and extract patrols/platoons, Casevac, etc.
Also no doubt the country will want to maintain some light lift capability for SF and PSO type tasking.
Looking at all the above tasks its interesting to debate what type of helicopter might fit the bill, and what type of fits it might need. Whilst Blackhawk will no doubt do all of the above my personal feeling is that it is a bit OTT (and therefore too expensive!) Now I'm not a 'it must be Lynx' man either but I think that a Mk 9 Lynx does fit the profile I've detailed. Obviously with the caveat that they need to sort out the serviceability, stop them from randomly falling out of the sky, make it more crashworthy, etc.
I think the important thing though is that we actually decide what we want this ac to do rather than just blindly demanding whatever we think is the current sexiest aircraft available.
Tied in with that is the necessity to ensure that the aircraft has the right equipment and for my money the big debate is the need to have a sight. Or rather the fact that I believe it will be a complete waste of money/weight. None of the tasks I have outlined need a sight however we do need to be able to to talk to the AH and that means a data modem and ideally the full display too.
Looking forward to a few replies....
[ 20 October 2001: Message edited by: Sumo664 ]