Evalu8ter:
Fully agree - thank our lucky stars we had no casualties. Now, it's all down to shifting metal and electronics.
Great points - this is pretty much the scenario you and other wise heads have forecast for so long. We are committed to a long war and cannot sustain the effort - so what were our senior leadership doing all this time?
Surely JHC and the guys in town weren't reporting 'green' for our fleet sustainability? Or even 'double counting' airframes so that we 'met' all our commitments? Surely not....
Tough times - but we have great people who can get through it. Sadly, we are now unable to give them the kit they really need. Short term solutions are few in number, but I can't help thinking that we should throw some money at the Sea Kings sitting in storage and get some more 'Jungly Mk 6s' generated. Yes, they aren't a Chinook, but they are tough and useful airframes, and could be made available quickly.
Desperate times, desperate measures....