Nurse,
I am with you, but although you and I wax lyrical and attempt to balance some of the doom mongerers on this thread by offering possible solutions, we all must recognise that we are just 'shooting the breeze' and ultimately this is a MoD/DEC ALM and JHC HQ decision.
If there really is a requirement, and there really is a political will (read funding) then we all know that at the squadron level we can make it work - whether it is your amphibious Merlin idea, or my Chinook idea or a combination of the 2.
One thing I am pretty sure about, and that is whatever you and I discuss on this blog, has already been discussed and placed in context in town and Wilton.
If the politicians really have put the funding back into helicopters, then the ball is very much back in DEC ALM's and JHC HQ's court to make a decision.
This I fear is where we could lose vital time as single service 'protectionism' as those in the DECs/JHC revert to their service politics.
This is where good leadership will cut through this staff officer single service mentality for a true best practice/combat effect/operational capability-however painful it may be for an individual service/fleet in order to achieve the greater good.
If not - and all we have done is a media frenzy exercise and in one month nothing has happened and only confirmation of the Puma LEP is the only quantifiable increase in lift capability, then I am sad as we will still have removed the option of helicopter lift to the commander on the ground and thereby forcing his hand to go by land.
Spheroid - still not a show stopper, very simple - when JHC and Navy Command do the maths, they will work out what the RN Sea King training requirement is and divide 848 up accordingly (personally, for all of the increase in tactical lift capability, the loss (or reduction) of one RN training squadron appears a sound discussion point?). If it means that a few of the younger Sea King HC4s become conversion trainers for the SAR/SKASaCs then so be it. Any resources (air/ground crew) that are left once Navy Command has filled its projected training requirement can be re-allocated/alloted to either Merlin or CH47 OCU. Same principle applies, just colocate the necessary 848 aircraft and personnel at Culdrose to satisfy the RN Sea King trg requirement. Lets be honest,from a pure Sea King training perspective Culdrose is where the RN Sea King simulator and ground school is any way
Last edited by MaroonMan4; 18th Jul 2009 at 06:40.