Agustawestland signs contracts in UK, Azerbaijan €435M

[Pittsextra]

Nice for the UK.

Ministry of Defence awards £285m Sea King contract to AgustaWestland - Telegraph

Azerbaijan Airlines Orders Ten AgustaWestland Helicopters | AgustaWestland


Edited to add link

[Thomas coupling]

I love the bit where the SeaKing is being replaced by the Merlin. Let's see now:

Net loss of SeaKings: Approx 100+ airframes.
Net gain of Merlins: Approx 30? (any takers).

Cost of running a SeaKing/hour: Approx £10,000.
Cost of running a Merlin/hour: Approx £ [It's got to be £50-60,000 hasn't it?]

The bit I like best (inside the industry) is for every hour the 40yr old SeaKing flies, it costs 10hrs maintenance downtime.
For the same with Merlins, it's 50hrs downtime.

Spot the serviceable Merlin

[JB-123]

£285,000,000 for maintenance and technical "support"? I presume this does not include front line maintenance? This works out at £1.5m per airframe per year until 2016. If you needed a reason for SAR H, this comes near the top.

[Pittsextra]

I am sure we can look forward to picking the thing apart in the coming years as we have our own Canadian moment.

[[email protected]]

JB - SKIOS is mostly about front-line maintenance and, since the quality from depth has been reduced (more contractorisation and KPI hoop-jumping), the amount of work completed on the front line has increased massively.

I think more will be needed on current performance to see the SK through to 2016.

If you needed a reason for power by the hour for military SAR, this comes at the top!

[Pittsextra]

Crab why is the government seemingly making such a meal out of SAR. Working on a principle of if it isn't broken don't fix it, new kit aside why change the current mil role in SAR??

[Bravo73]

Originally Posted by Pittsextra

Crab why is the government seemingly making such a meal out of SAR. Working on a principle of if it isn't broken don't fix it, new kit aside why change the current mil role in SAR??

"Use the search, Luke. Use the search."

[Pittsextra]

Ha - yes of course having posted looking at the thread below this one explains all... although really the money argument is hollow given it just shifts the burden off the balance sheet and becomes more P&L.

[Thomas coupling]

Pittsextra, can you think of an easier way to chop a branch of the military so effectively without the public smelling a rat?????

[Pittsextra]

I guess. Sadly.

[Anthony Supplebottom]

We shouldn't give up so easily on losing SAR to civvy street operators.

Can we arrange a thousand pilots and engineers to march on the MoD!

[[email protected]]

Pitts - political dogma added to some historical empire-building by the previous head of the MCA. Add in the MoD blinkered approach to anything that isn't war-fighting and you have the perfect recipe for an expensive waste of taxpayer's money that won't provide any better (or even equal in some people's view) service.

[Nicholas Howard]

SKIOS

Crab

The only forward (as opposed to front line) maintenance that SKIOS is involved in is in SAR delivery. Actually the bulk of SKIOS is depth (on & off aircraft) maintenance and logistic and technical services.