RW Safety
 

Telegraph is reporting that resource driven activity reductions (i.e. cuts) are having an impact on overseas RW training (particularly hot & high) leading the Defence Safety Authority to raise 'safety concerns'. I would imagine that ongoing cuts to defence are not just impacting safety within JHC?

It wouldn't surprise me.

Why is it an issue when not routinely deploying to sandy/snowy environments?

It is a perishable skill that cant just be taught in a day. It’s also worth noting that those are not just relevant to the Middle East. Look at the Puma guys in the Caribbean recently who would have been pushing their AUM and would use a lot of the skills previously taught on overseas exercises.

Were the Puma's in the Caribbean for long enough to justify EQ which might have been longer than the op?

I get what you mean, however the entire military trains for the next war. This by definition means there is an element of educated guessing as to where that will be and the skill sets required. Keeping a cadre of crews current is sensible and develops capabilities for the next surprise war.

Afghanistan has its share of sandy/snowy environments as well as hot & high conditions. It is an unforgiving environment so not a bad idea to train for it.

Interesting parallels throughout UK Defence with what has been going on in the US Navy's Pacific fleet. This blog by a serving OF-5 points the finger at centrally-directed cuts to training and bemoans the fact that the blame for the inevitable incidents has fallen squarely on the front-line commanders, who are being let down by the system's failure to provide sufficient trained individuals and have no way of influencing that system. In the circumstances described their only option would be to down-declare their units...

Very interesting link, Easy Street ... thanks for that :ok:

Reading it in a different way, there's a pay grade where culpability no longer applies ;)

Interesting indeed and I have lived and breathed similar issues for far too long.

I did like this bit:

Agreed - but I thought the Puma force were?
How can you justify running gold plated, hugely expensive overseas training packages (that were previously funded by operational budgets) rarely in support of ground troops when the rest of defence is being cut to smithereens...
A cadre ok, but the whole force? Every year?

Oh dear. No - you're mixing quality training with environmental training... Other than for VHR units environmental training will be conducted once in theatre - which was what we used to do! Of course this is not where any of us would like to be (or are used to after the last 15 years) but this is about choices. If defence wants everyone ready to go off the ramp they need to pay for it (and we can't afford it).

And no the army cannot afford to train all of its people for all eventualities either - have you not seen how much Army training has been slashed in recent years for what (for aviation) is peanuts? I agree, if we had bottomless pockets we should do as much training as possible in challenging environmental conditions but, sadly, financially that's not where we are... But the fallacy that good trg only occurs on swanky overseas dets living in hotels is nonsense. :ugh:

"But the fallacy that good trg only occurs on swanky overseas dets living in hotels is nonsense"

Ah, yes. I forget the near boundless availability of high density altitude, low spectral reflectivity, talcum-powder dust filled, live-firing training areas we have in the UK...or B....

I have been on numerous overseas EQ exercises and I have NEVER stayed in a hotel!

As for swanky, Kuwait was in the middle of nowhere, 100% dry and the food average at best. This was coupled with numerous bollocks rules, crap dust and a plethora of tech issues. Kenya we were on anti-malarials that had most of the det having crazy nightmares and with Gastric upset for the 6 weeks. Half of the det ended up living in 12x12s for some of that time whilst eating rat packs!

The worst accommodation was in Kuwait where I was in a 40 man room with the US Army up at 0600 every morning doing phys for 100 approx 20’ from our tent. Kenya was in a cattle shed (no really!).

So I may have missed the time when JHC had a secret stash of money to pay for hotels....

What’s wrong with using the sims
 

Surely we have spent millions on simulators to facilitate such EQ training without leaving the UK.

9Bit - have you ever been in a helicopter sim!?

For the uninitiated, they're not terrible in fwd flight at a sensible height (even low level) but the handling at low speed is usually fairly crap, and the visuals are, at their best, about as good as a computer game from the 90's. What that means is that, certainly for degraded visibility stuff they're useful as a procedural trainer, but nothing like the real thing to fly. More useful for gaining experience of hot/high emergency handling admittedly.

All the above said, thankfully UK military helicopters have joined at least the late 20th century with regards autopilot/stability systems over the last few years, so the risk associated with hurling a 50million quid helo at the desert floor should be significantly reduced, thus reducing the training burden. However, as someone pointed out above, landing isn't everything! Reduced performance at high DA's and the utterly dark desert nights have to be trained in, if you want to play world domination as a government. Put up or shut up....

Yes, some of the locations do occasionally have hotels. But very few, and only when necessary. And usually because they're cheaper than the host nation's military offering, which are often surprisingly expensive and consist of a few tents and a hole in the ground.

pba

I concur that your argument re older visuals during IGE ops was true 10 years ago, the latest generation of sims visuals have made a quantum leap forward.

As you say yourself with the advent of modern AFCS, a DVE/RVO landing is far more procedural these days with auto hover to ground functionality doing the bulk of the hard work, so the sim can replicate EQ training especially when you combine it with modern visuals.

In my view simulation can replicate the bulk of the EQ individual training required. RSO&I then putting the icing on the cake once you arrive in theatre. What you can’t simulate is the benefits of the collective training of working alongside the elements you will work with on Ops.

9bit,

The problem really is that Sims don't come cheap (50-100 million for a new pair of full motion level D's I'd suggest) and capital investment up front is not something MOD are fond of. Given that the cost of an Antonov to ship your aircraft to the desert is a million quid, you can run a good few years of exercise for the price of a new sim. Even with the latest visuals in the front end, that still doesn't cover the cabin, which is a whole other level of technology to simulate, again, not impossible, but not exactly super cheap!

I think these defence cuts could be a good thing! 😉