They are claiming an increase of 60% - what does this mean?
Channel 4 TV news just interpreted it as meaning as a 60% increase in overall helicopter numbers?
That can't be right.
Is it a 60% increase in the number of helicopters in Afghanistan itself?
That would seem at least possible.
Air Commodore Simon Falla (described as Chief of Staff, JHC) says we have enough to do key tasks, and that we can 'surge', and that we plan to do more.....
He declined to give a number of helicopters 'in theatre' but did give the snippet that it represented "25% of the useable total."
I'm starting to get a bit impatient with the lack of openness on numbers. I have every sympathy with legitimate military security, but I fail to see why the overall number of aircraft deployed should NECESSARILY be secret, and start to suspect that the reticence on this is more to do with preventing political embarrassment than with airing information that would be of any aid or comfort to the enemy.
Falla seemed to confirm this when he remarked that giving an accurate number would "leave us a hostage to fortune" - it being clear that he was referring to the media impact - and not to a security concern.
Following the Wildcat ceremony at Yeovil, I asked Quentin Davies about what the Government were going to do to address the shortfall in helicopter lift identified by the NAO. He listed the return to service of the eight Chinook HC3s, the acquisition of the six Danish Merlins, and the 12-Lynx UOR, and stated that this was all that was necessary, dismissing my concern that this (while a start) fell far short of addressing the 38% shortfall in battlefield lift and the 67% shortfall in amphibious lift). He dismissed my contention that there was any immediate need for a Puma/Sea King replacement.
If these clots can't see, or won't admit the underlying problem, then how can we expect a mature and intelligent debate about what is, in effect, a sub-set of that problem? (Since the shortfall in helicopters in Afghanistan must be a function of the overall shortfall......)