Hello again,
Sorry for the late addition - don't always spend time on teh computer.
Blackhawks can fit into a Herc as someone else said but as well as taking off the blades you have to take off some fairings, let down the struts to the main landing gear to get it over the ramp hinge. Also, the herc can carry one - the c-17 can carry three with crews!
Seen a C-17 get into Dilli in '07/08 so no dramas there but nothing around (unless you're talking VTOL) will land as short as a Bou, in strips as rugged as a bou will operate in so forget the fixed wing option - go more chinooks perhaps. I don't remember sweating on a landing in the 'bou until the field was less than 2000ft.
Haven't flown huey but flown C model chinooks and Blackhawks and love the blackhawk - bet the guys are wishing they got Mike models but at the end of the day the line swine don't hand over the cash for what they want - someone else holds the purse strings and the line drivers make do with what they got - kinda like being married.
Forget about the H's they are knackered - the only ones wanting to keep them are the nav's as they effectively out of a job in ALG when the H retires.
Happy to have and extra C-17. As for the Herc - I worry that with what the army is buying will make the herc into a caribou. Let me explain:
When the army changed over from the series III landrover to the 110 the caribou lost any ability to transport a 4x4. The 110 had flared wheel arches and would not physically fit into the back of a caribou so effectivley cutting out of one of its roles. With the 110 about to be replaced by something bigger/heavier the herc may find it in the same boat. And no it probably won't be one of their requirements to fit in the back of a C130 when they have a shiny C-17. So the herc becoomes the new caribou. Also, the floor loading on a J is no different to a E or H so if something has a heavy foot print then it may not be able to carry it. That's why the A400 might be better long term but only after another 5-10 years of OPERATIONAL service. Tired of ironing out the bugs for everybody else!!
But if you want to buy some J gunships then I'd be there in an instant
Frazzled
