We must be careful.....
Although I totally agree that amphibious 'gumpf' is not rocket science and that any service can do the flying element of it, we should be aware that after Afghan there is every intent to return to the set up that many of us remember from the late 90s and early 2000s where we did spend alot of time at sea in the Med, and by the end of it we became quite good at it (apart from the odd wheels dropping off the back every now and again
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But it takes practice, focus and resources to do it properly - of course we can take it on risk (i.e. cuff it), but lets just look at what the knock on effect has been for the guys/capabilities that have been asked to endure in the Med.
If we in the light blue are saying on these forums that with the right training any Service can do amphib then we need to be prepared to put our money where our mouths are. I say this selfishly as I hate the morale vacuum of the O Boat, and 6 months on an amphibious exercise/deployment just fills me with dread. But having taken the Queen's shilling I will go where I am told, but please do not expect me or my colleagues to tick off bare deck landing currencies and then call us Very High Readiness Maritime CR.
If you want me to do it properly, then I need to train regularly with the customer, know the whole amphibious doctrine and TTPs stuff, and actually integrate properly - which we do not do at the moment, looking at the earliest opportunity to disembark.
And in doing this amphib gumpf we have to be very aware that signing up to taking airframes away for months on end will mean that they aren't on the line for training the rest of the field army and the new guys coming through the OCF. Unless someone makes a big change in policy, the Support Helicopters in the RAF are primarily there to support Army operations on the land, not being wasted bobbing up and down at sea.
I agree flying from a deck is not a black art, but it cannot be cuffed otherwise we will be found severely wanting if god forbid there is an accident, let alone actually have to do the job properly as per Al Faw.