Private Eye story about Puma upgrade
 

Any thoughts about this story:
Private Eye | Official Site

AN unpopular plan to upgrade the RAF’s fleet of Puma helicopters by sending them to the other side of Europe for a £300m refit was ditched in 2009 because Labour MPs feared that carrying out the upgrading and maintenance work in Romania would provoke a “voter backlash”.

Back then the Times reported: “Labour MPs are worried about the reaction of voters amid rising unemployment in Britain.” But under the coalition the decision has been quietly reversed; and the RAF is busily crating up its Pumas at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire and sending them to Eurocopter Romania by, er, road.

The basic maintenance, overhauls, inspections and upgrades will be carried out by Romanian workers at Eurocopter’s factory near Bucharest. Each convoy is made up of “wide load” trucks led by an NCO in a Convoi Exceptionnel warning van, together with an extra truck full of spare parts for the journey. RAF markings are concealed to avoid embarrassment.

Once upgraded, the helicopters will then be crated up again and driven all the way back to RAF Benson. Certification to allow them to fly back to the UK is unavailable because they are not allowed to be flight-tested while in Romania.


Not too sure that labour should have been worried about this potential vote loser in 2009. I think that there may well have been some other factors that led to a voter backlash!

well presumably Westland didn't want to touch the upgrade because they just wanted to sell more Merlins, and Romania would be cheaper than France to do the work. I'd guess that Westland's assembly jigs were all scrapped anyway when the Weston-super-Mare plant closed (the last batch were built there, not Yeovil)
As the Merlin was proving to be a reliability pain, what else could the Goverment do? Upgrade the spare anti-sub Sea Kings as transport cabs? Still slow and even older. Buy Black Hawks? Cheap if purchased direct, but don't Westland hold an exclusive licence for UK sales (remember they built one during the Thatcher years). Westland weren't likely to accept a build order for Black Hawks while they wanted to build Merlins

A good source tells me this has happened since the very start of the programme - except they went from Kiddlington instead of Benson.

Romania built many Pumas on licence from Aerospatiale who are actually the design authority/OEM.

FYI they also built "RomBAC" BAC1-11's in the 70's and 80's. So they have a history of good manufacturing processes for that size of aircraft which, to be honest, EC-UK probably had very little or no experience, having only dealt with Dauphins as their largest so far (I spent some months there, monitoring a few conversions, a couple of years ago).

I'd heard that the upgrade is under review as part of PR11, and is likely to be scrapped?

And with the Merlin Force going to the RN, it doesn't bode well for SH remaining 'light-blue'........!

Or, more likely, the Chinook buy doesn't happen, the Merlins don't go to the RN and the future of the FAA looks far more uncertain - no FJ, only Sea Kings due out of service and a few Lynx/Wildcat - not much of an 'arm'.

...The Fleet Air Finger, FAF.:E

Everything is under review as part of PR11, nothing is ring fenced.

Cut and paste from a letter that I have seen written by the Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP.

SDSR had two main priorities: To ensure that our mission in Afghanistan was protected; and to set a path tp a coherent Defence capability in 2020. We faced a number of difficult choices as we sought to meet these priorities whilst also making a contributon to reducing overall Govt expenditure, albeit at a lower level than other Govt Depts.

We have made it clear that the SDSR was a point of departure not the end of the line. We have set a path to 2020 and beyond with regular reviews every five years. The first period from 2010 to 2015 is a period of rebalancing our strategic direction; the period from 2015 to 2020 will be about regenerating capability and achieving overall vision.

I draw from this that we cannot complain about the services being Afghan centric when the direction from Govt is indeed Afghan centric. ...and secondary, if any development or purchase will not see service in 2020, I cannot see how it will survive the coming months. The potential for negative headlines associated with Pumas survival based upon foreign contracts when there is a UK helicopter industry in need of contracts must be very high. Added to a pretty weak coalition and a Labour Govt who see their own stronger coalition Govt in the making must make any risk of bad news untenable.

Yeah - the Romanians have always had an active aeroplane industry - they were building strike aircraft into the 90's of their own design and upgraded a lot of MiG's as well

You see RomAF Pumas all the time if you are there

They also built the BN-Islander for a long time and they were shipped back to Bembridge for painting

TBH we'll probably get a decent job done at a reasonable price compared to doing it here or in France

Talking of price and as this is a rumour network, I hear on the grapevine that the LEP costs have escalated substantially as a result of engine issues.

Ah, good old "Jam Tomorrow". :ugh:

Umm, I'm no expert on this but my understanding is that the Puma upgrade work always was going to be done in Romania. And that's still the case. This Private Eye thing feels like a garbled non-story to me. In harking back to 2009, I think they are referring to debates over whether the upgrade should proceed at all, not where the work should be done.


Could be the last? writes:

Does this mean that this is untrue:

MoD and Treasury agree deal to plug £1bn funding gap | UK news | guardian.co.uk

In particular:

If it's true, it sounds like the Puma upgrade is pretty well "ring fenced"!

Are you sure? I'd heard that the venue had changed (but still not UK).

Bye bye to any frills then...

One wonders who is actually doing the upgrade as most of the Romanian populace are living and claiming in the UK.

NutLoose,


One wonders at the offensive nature of your inaccurate racist post...

Pr00ne:

Just to be accurate "Romanian" is a nationality not a "race"...

You need to see a doctor about that horrible knee jerk... :rolleyes:

Pr00ne

I don't find Nutloose's post either offensive or racist. My how times have changed! :rolleyes: I don't think you have ever lived in central London have you?

"One wonders who is actually doing the upgrade as most of the Romanian populace are living and claiming in the UK"

The Romanian Gypsies of course. They always get all the scrap metal deals

Well thank you for that Pr00ne....... :ugh:

One never meant any offence period............

Henry09,


I live RIGHT in the middle as it happens, lovely eclectic diverse place that it is.

Nutloose,

If no offence intended then all is fine fine. Just insultingly inaccurate then.