500N
And we, the insignificant country of Aust that kicks far above our weight
have very few restrictions on equipment from the US. I wonder why that is ?
While I agree with just about everything you have said, I don't think the above statement holds true anymore.
We are not punching above our weight because our people and equipment are being held back. Our soldiers are very good at what they do and are doing well wherever they are deployed, but our air assets remain largely unproven. No F-111s saw combat, No RAAF Hornets have deployed to support our soldiers and only a very small rotational deployment of AAvn has entered the MEAO. The RAAF is not in a position to conduct tactical airdrop in the AO and our ground forces are largely reliant on foreign support in order to conduct ops. Hopefully this will change, but we have been in Afghanistan for more than a decade now...how long does it take?
IMHO 50+ M/UH-60M/S would have been a zero risk replacement for the next 20 years. Right out of the box they would have been deployable, and that's what we want.
