More Merlins?
 

Rumours are surfaceing that the RAF have aquired Merlins form the Danish and Portugese, in response to the shortfall of SH. This is a blatent fishing exped, but can anyone add substance? :ugh:

I can categorically state that it is an official rumour!

There is another one about some Wokkas as well...

What a jolly good idea!

I often thought that the paintjob on a Danish I01 was better than that of our Mk3's!!

Why did we get the drab olive version and the Danes get the Metallic paint job option at nil cost eh? Looks so much better for pulling chicks.

I bet they even have free sat nav and radios / DAS suites that work. Clever pig breeding blighters, they must really have some well paid CS's doing their procurement.

:}

/If truth be told, Mr AJ of AW (Yeovil) may have 'offered' the aircraft to our Vice Chief, but as you know there is a world of difference between an intial unsolicited offer and delivery of the capability on the ground/

A good adendum to that rumour is that it is not the RAF, but the RN who will be supplying 13 crews for the putative green JUNGLY Merlins.
But what do I know........................

Wot???

13 Spare crews at a moment's notice from the hard-pressed jungly force ... shurely shome mishtake.........:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Mixed crews I heard from a little bird.
Jungly left hand seat.

Whilst speaking to a secret personnel base in Gloucestershire last week, something was mentioned about personnel required for an entirely new SH Sqn next year - I wondered what at first, but posts above are clearing the muddied waters!

More Pingalies?

I love it when a Sunday lunchtime rumour becomes fact on PPrune by Tuesday evening....

Are there no Sea Kings / Commandos in storage or reserve if sufficient crews can be found?

No HC Mk4's - why else would the IPT strip out and partial DAS fit 5 HAS Mk6 to Mk6(Commando Role) standard to cover the shortage during the avionics upgrade?

There are a load more HAS Mk6 ASW paid off in 2003 or so in storage... Check the previous thread on Mk6(CR) for that discussion - time to convert/cost/Vmax etc. There's a whole lot that could be done to them, but they are still 18-30 odd years old...

Spare Junglies? I'll check the bottom drawer.... There's a few in Telic not airborne at the moment...

Saw what you did there Detgnome - clever and prophetic.

WC

Lets hope if true, the 72 Sqn number can be liberated, and put back to helos where it should be!
Anyone from 28 (AC) Sqn available to comment on the additional ac rumour?:confused:

If these aircraft were to be partly manned by ASW crews who would be looking at doing the training? (That is, assuming that any is planned, rather than OJT).

Pfft!

Training???! Whatever next? you'll want spares and maintainers to support them next!

You lot are never happy.:E

Anyway's just use a Chinny Mk3 can't you?:}

Pingers are already fully trained in secondary roles.

There are big differences between "trained", "current" and "competent".

as jungly instrument flying proves................

More Merlins
 

Gosh - they've got that Lancaster cloaking device working at last....;)

Merlins?
 

Pedant mode on...

Isn't the closest unit a Griffon? ( contra-prop)

And the furthest one is a radial??

Pedant mode off..:)

Interesting prop blades too. Wonder what they are set up for?

These lads are engine nuts - the props are there to provide resistance to the crank and stop over revving I guess. ISTR that they are somewhere in the NW - Lancashire/Cumbria area.

Must sound just great, but I wouldn't want their fuel bill...., still I bet their wives don't have to wait long for the washing to dry :E

Further information here:-
http://members.lycos.co.uk/pwgrieve/

Any chance of getting back to the point of the thread? or shall I start one for random comments?

No chance m8. Not round 'ere.

Perhaps you could say why/where you heard this guff from in the first place?

Mr-AEO

Can I ask where you heard that it's guff? My sources are impeccable, and confirm the orig. rumour 100%.

Expect it to be announced in about .... (now that would be telling too much :E )

It's very easy to confirm it as a rumour - I've heard it from 3 separate sources/communities away from PPrune - therefore I can confirm it as a rumour - slightly different to it actually being true. Professional Pilot's Fully confirmed truth network - I think not...?

Yes, I can confirm that it is true. Well it is true that it is rumoured that the MOD are looking at procuring a handfull of new cabs (sorry, couldn't resist - have just been listening to a similar comment by Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister :p )

Anyway, from talking to people in the know, I too have heard similar stories from various, usually reliable sources. And if what Mr AEO says is true, then logic would dictate that there is only one other place for them to end up - other than TELIC and being in pieces all over the hangar floor at Yeovilton!

Well, its the strongest rumor I've heard.

My mole at wastelands whispered in my shell like the other day that the MoD may siphon Danish 101's from the production line. Not sure what the Danes think about his but apparently the RMs were drooling more at that thought than at 2 egg n bacon banjos mmmmm!.

This plus a tlae a few weeks back about a UOR for Mk 1 DAS suites and it seems someone in JHC wahts more Green Plastic pigs to play with.

JHC wants more cabs in the sky, preference would be for wokkas but restrictions from Government over spending the extra funding is likely to mean a UK-solution, leading to only one choice, Merlin.

I don't debate that the idea is sound, and of course WHL want this to be the way ahead. But sat against a backdrop of FRC work looking at filling the Interim ML (of which Danish Merlins are not an option, unless they intend leasing them) and pressure from EC to give us Super Puma's - it just seems an 'Option' at the moment.

Plus, RAF don't acquire Helo's anyway. /semantics i know/

But like I said before, I like the idea because the Danish cabs have a great metallic paint job!:ok:

The one of tee back seem to have taught itself how to a radial engine.

Rumour has it that 230 will disband, become a permanently detached flight from 33 and the Navy will stand up 825 NAS with a mixture of Navy and RAF SH guys flying the procured Merlins. Surely it would be easier just to add an additional flight to 28 (AC) Sqn, rather than stand a new Sqn up in this time of financial belt-tightening?

Wouldn't want to be a Merlin qualified guy in a rest tour at the mo.....the phone could be ringing soon....

No Merlins?
 

Des the magician said yesterday:

Importantly, General Richards judges he has the forces to maintain the relatively stable security situation that now exists. But I will continue to push for his requirements to be met, in full, as a matter of urgency.

Is there a contradiction here?

In Helmand, the UK Task Force also faces challenges . . . We are rebalancing our forces, taking advantage of the steady improvement in the Afghan army and police to concentrate our forces on the central area surrounding the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. . . .

Back in the UK, the main challenge – for me, . . . is to give our troops the resources they need to get the job done. This is a relentless task, but we are rising to it. We have now almost completely deployed the reinforcements . . . that includes: 2 more Chinook helicopters, and more flying hours for helicopters across the fleet; more capacity to train the Afghan National Army; engineers to take forward development; and more infantry.

Is thgat 2 more Chinooks from yesterday or from 10 Jul?

On 24 July I announced a new package for protected vehicles for both Afghanistan and Iraq, including 100 new Mastiff and 100 additional Vector, funded by new money from the Treasury.

And?

I believe we have shown we can be responsive to the requests of commanders and we will continue to be so.

Are, so they have the kit now?

In Afghanistan, we have to tackle the South and the East if we are to secure what has already been achieved in the rest of the country.
In Iraq, we have to support the Iraqi government, and their army and police

We will do all of these things – we cannot afford not to.

I am sure the House will join me in paying tribute to them again today.

How many tributes is a pint of beer?

Mi-17 and Mi-26?
 

Seems that the cunning plan may involve using Hip and Halo from a PMC, which would be interesting....

Daily Torygraph report

I note that the total number of Merlins on offer from Denmark is allegedly six.

There's been one of the jobbies in and out of WHL for the last three days.

Nice and shiny.

Saw it as I went to get me lunch.

Perhaps that means the Merlin idea is nothing more than AW's answer to Eurocopter's unsolicited Cougar bid to JHC - you can't blame them for trying to make it a more even playing field, even if they had previously been told they were not allowed to make unsolicited bids, can you?

From the Daily Torygraph report ...

So there's another eight S/F Chinooks then?? :confused:

Coz they surely can't mean the HC3's can they?? :hmm:

I'd somehow got the impression that the reason that the HC3's hadn't flown was because of a bit of a procurement/requirements/software-validation c:mad:k-up.

If they DO mean the HC3's then that's a pretty nifty ' Hey, let's make it sound as if some tech boffins foolishly buggered 'em up when no-one was looking ' sort of move that someone's pulled there! :rolleyes: :ugh:

Cheers,
TS

Found this on a Rotorheads thread.

MoD forced to hire civilian helicopters in Afghanistan

By Francis Elliott and Raymond Whitaker
Published: 15 October 2006

Britain is so short of helicopters in Afghanistan that military chiefs are being forced to scour the world for civilian aircraft to support its troops after the US rejected a plea to help plug the shortfall.

An ageing fleet of just eight Chinooks is working around the clock to supply and reinforce soldiers in remote outposts facing waves of Taliban attacks. The only Chinook in the Falklands was taken away for use in the campaign.

The revelations come in the wake of the outburst by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the army chief, against the Government's military strategy last week.

The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that reconnaissance and intelligence missions in Afghanistan are being affected by the lack of smaller and more flexible helicopters. But senior military officials said that when UK commanders asked for temporary deployment of US helicopters in Afghanistan, they were told there were none to spare.

Instead, the MoD has been forced to seek out commercial operators for non-combat operations, to free more military craft for use at the front line. So urgent is the need that Britain is understood to be asking other nations that have ordered Merlin helicopters from Westland to allow the MoD to requisition them.

Just last weekend Tony Blair said: "If the commanders on the ground want more equipment, armoured vehicles for example, more helicopters, that will be provided. Whatever package they want we will do."
...