that was before he had any idea how many people he actually required to achieve the task
What do you mean "before"? They still have no idea. Why?
Anyone have the numbers involved in NPAS to hand?
TFOs
No where near enough. A unit in the NW will effectively be offline for three nights due to only a single Observer on two of the nights and none on the other.
This was unheard of prior to NPAS.