Keep wriggling.
From the evidence you have quoted,
CdG's strike aircraft have flown missions off the Libyan coast for 120 of the past 139 days (over 83%). The French have provided 30% of NATO strike missions so, by definition, a good proportion of these must have been flown from
CdG, reported as able to fly two sorties per a/c per day owing to their proximity to the Libyan coast.
What land-based a/c have been able to match this? It sounds like the French will be looking for a shed-load more to replace
CdG's contribution.
£15.6M for 12 months land based ops against the running cost of the carrier...more than enough left over to pay for some extra gas, I suspect.
According to the article you have quoted, £15.6m is purely for hotel accommodation. Apart from the extra locally-purchased fuel requirement, what about the additional infrastructure, food, local allowances, transport (local and international, freight and pax), £70k per Typhoon flying hour for each 1,200 mile round trip between Gioia del Colle and the Libyan coast (at least £140,000 times how many 100 sorties?) as well as the astronomical number of extra tanker hours and their fuel?
To quote Hansard (
link):
Mr Robathan: Savings from the withdrawal from service of HMS Ark Royal in December 2010 are estimated at £10 million in financial year 2011-12...
From your latest quoted article:
Major Gen Nick Pope, an MoD spokesman, said that Army Air Corp Appaches had been deployed "deep into" the Nufusa mountains to support the offensive. He also said Apaches had attacked Libyan forces at al Watiyah, on the Tunisian border 40 miles south of the coast.
He said: "Hellfire missiles and cannon fire accounted for one headquarters and twelve military vehicles, including at least one armed with a surface-to-air weapon system, with another four vehicles left seriously damaged.
As these Apaches must be from the five embarked in HMS
Ocean, think what extra capability a dozen or so Harriers could have brought to the party.
