Aussies receive new NH90
 

Perhaps i should send this link to your PM and advise him that now and again, it is advisable to spend a Little of the peoples money on important assets that allow the guys and girls at the pointy end to do their job more effectively.

Understand from this rumour network ( and others) current UK throw-wing assets are getting rather tired.

Is the reluctance of some to spend the money simply because there not built in UK?

Link;

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/down...218b/index.htm

Great news but IOC in 2011? Blimey ....

It ain't your grandfather's P-51, is it? Still, I guess it will still beat the F-35 into the squadrons.:ugh:

See the last pic? An ex-RN guy recruited laterally is one of the instructor pilots.

IOC of 2011 does sound a bit late. Perhaps the news people got it wrong, and that's full delivery or inital Squadron fully raised...........

New Gear
 

And a new Tiger FFMS (Full Flight & Mission Simulator - Sim hours logged as aircraft hours);:ooh:

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/down...213a/index.htm

operational capability of 2011

As this surely means all aircraft on the flightline and most crews Combat Ready on type, ie the fleet ready for war, 2011 is quite resonable.

It is a great pity that UKplc are not doing the same.

Given our procurement woes, I'd rather we just bought some shiney G model Wokkas. God alone knows what QinetiQ would do if turned loose on some UK NH-90s! :eek:

Yeah, good thinking... cos a Wokka will EASILY fit into the landing spaces that a small helicopter like the puma does:ugh:

Oooohh, get her! :E

That wasn't a dig at the Puma, more a comment that if we could afford more lift let's get the most lift for our money.

I have nothing to do with the Puma so didn’t take it personally. I am just sick of all the people that think all our SH lift problems can be resolved by purchasing an all Chinook superfleet. Yes it is a brilliant aircraft and one we could scarcely do without, but we need fleets that complement each other.
And if you are after then surely we should purchase about 50 Hips!!!

Tiger_mate,

What you describe is FULL Operational Capability.


Initial Operational Capability (when I worked in an area that was related to this project) was being discussed. The general feeling at the time was Initial capability should be defined as some part of the force to the standard you describe (crews trained, ready for war etc), be that the capability to put a standard "block" (say - 4 birds onto the LPA) ready to do "operational" stuff was available.......................

Put the bottle down mate, I think youve had enough!

I agree that the wokka isnt the answer to every question, and the Puma is proving that in the Gulf. But Hips?

Theres a reason they are cheap mate!

"Is the reluctance of some to spend the money simply because there not built in UK?"

now that westlands is Owned by Agusta thats solveable, at a price

its because he regards all defence spending as a waste of money

And I don't disagree with you. But we're now talking about a wider issue than I was in my original comment.

I'd wouldn't say no if the treasury loosened the purse strings to buy some but I know even if they did, we'd be talking penny numbers and another asset tying down crews for conversion and training. I doubt they'd pull the plug on Puma - or if they did, replace them frame for frame.

Also, we'd be looking probably at a year or two before we'd have a useful deployable force. That's not gonna help the SH force in the short term as much as some more cabs we already operate would.

Well, that was my thinking anyway.

I wouldn't be against it if they were new and built to western standards but by then they wouldn't be all that cheap either. :}

And assuming that nice Mr Putin didn't have some kind of kill-switch added in somewhere...