What is the AAC to do?
WG. I am sure that you are right about the RN appreciation of FLynx; the spin has certainly gone our way.
It is also true that, in the almost stony silence from informed sources within town or the Air Wing of HQLF, the speculators and media have raged across various fora pronouncing that the MoD is FLu**ed. It is certainly difficult to find a Land based picture as sensor and weapon rich as the glossy above.
Evalu8ter. Thank you, I must agree and 'harsh' did make me smile. It no longer matters what you can/cannot stow in the back or under the seat, what the look down angle of the optical/laser turret might be or providing enough blades in the air to keep the AAC going. As of last Thursday, 34 of these airframes will be delivered to the Army. So what are they going to do with them?
The US don’t appear to have a solution. Lt Gen James Thurman, US Army Ops Director said
the war-fighting capability for a manned, armed, reconnaissance helicopter is crucial to supporting our ground combat commanders and remains a critical requirement for the Army
(as the DoD cancelled its Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter in Oct 08).
A number of us are struggling to understand what these stated TORs might mean:
Future Lynx will be optimised for either the maritime or battlefield environments, with the versatility and flexibility to be able to be rapidly switched from one role to another. The aircraft will have a multi-role capability able to perform a range of tasks including battlefield reconnaissance, maritime surface attack and utility lift tasks.
Master of None is certainly too harsh.
Eval is probably right in that recent press statements will have to be satisfied:
Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters that act as scouts, perform light close air support and escort other helicopters on dangerous missions.
Experts said an influx of Future Lynx helicopters would reduce the number of soldiers killed by roadside bombs by providing an alternative to ground patrols.
Future Lynx can carry out third-party designation of targets, particularly for the Apache AH Mk1 helicopter, by using the L3 Wescam MX-15Di stabilised electro-optical laser designator turret.
How is the AAC to respond? What weaponry do they seek and what will they call this Cat? Manx would suit many of the comments in Prune but I have to favour Toyger.
Last edited by Data-Lynx; 16th Dec 2008 at 19:33.