AIR CORPS -

[Silver]

Ok, this is the scenario -

You have the power to decide the future of the Air Corps - a blank canvas.

You can choose -
- Roles ?
- What aircraft to purchase ?
- How many of each aircraft ?
- Staffing levels ?
- To move from Baldonnel (or not) ?
- To open extra airbases (or not) ?
etc. etc. etc.      


No doubt we will have some wild suggestions.
However, I am thinking REALISTIC choices/decisions here.
For example, circa 40-60 aircraft, max of 3-4 airbases, etc. etc.

[Silver]

C'mon guys - put your 'thinking caps' on  '>

[stuck in the pilbara]

First ever post on this site -  have been a  regular lurker though. No that’s not true – I did make a reply to one query about a strange object being towed behind a helicopter , but that was ages and ages ago, on the old version of this site

I’m a Ex FCA (sorry rdf), keenly interested in all things flying and currently reside on the far side of the planet – wonderful thing the internet J

Here goes

Basic idea or rules: to get most capability as possible – realistic roles and aircraft (the IAC is never going to get black hawks or f16s  the government will never spend the money and the voter in the street would never let them do it any way)– min number of air craft types (used in different roles – see casas) and supplier of aircraft  types  decreases maintenance issues and increases bargaining power during initial purchase and subsequent spares and maintenance / upgrade issues


To move from Baldonnel (or not) ?
No – open it as joint civil/ military facility –  possible source of extra income
-   To open extra airbases (or not) ?
Yes – Move some units to Shannon – and operate as per baldonnel  joint civil/ military facility. State already owns this place so should be little problem
-   Roles ?
-   Roles to go (or that have already gone and should remain so)
-SAR – this goes to coast guard  (continue the CHC contract or who ever else can bid to do it – can only really make it better – they have a budget, like any one else but have only one role and if they cut costs to make their quote look nicer, and then cant do the job right they don’t get a renewal)
-GASU –Let them use AIR corp facilities – ie Bal but leave the flying to the guards or whoever they contract to actually fly the gear- option to increase fleet to give Air ambulance role to this organisation as well. Should be 4 helis (Dublin, Cork, Galway and Sligo) to give coverage to these cities and the surrounding areas – maybe a  2nd heli based in Dublin to cover the larger pop and act as a  “spare” – dept of justice pays for these

-   Roles to be added or expanded
Maritime patrol -   currently there are 2 Casas –  need more at least 4 if not 5. possibly upgrade to allow longer patrols -  is range currently set by aircraft range or the size of the aircaft doesn’t allow a spare crew to do really long patrols. Can we increase fuel capacity and then range? These to be based from Shannon.  Wider range of surveillance equip on these would mean that these can then act like the PC3 of many countries – Australia for example not just totally dedicated to Maritime surveillance. One could then be deployed with a RRF detachment see Tactical Helis and Transport fixed wing below.
Tactical transport helis –12 – 14 even 16 general purpose medium lift helis- my thought  is at least 4 or 5 dedicated to the RRF. These should have  weapons capability for the RRF dedicated aircraft at least. Noting mind blowing, some rocket pods, pintel (spelling?) mounted MGs, thus RRF would have organic air lift/ casevac capability, with a  bit of fire support thrown in     we don’t need a  dedicated attack helicopter!!!!!
 type '>,  realistically to get a  useful and not just symbolic ( and then over worked) number of helis – ie the min 10   mentioned above we are not going to be able to shell out for a span new machine!! .  Never mind what dodgy deal DoD do to increase votes in marginal seats. Yes I know the country has more money than before but times are different.  So I suggest some Bell 212s or the augusta version of it. Another option is Mil 8 or Mil 18 – yes I know they are Russian  -  but there are many companies offering packages to update old Warsaw pact gear with modern avionics.  There are also loads of airframes going around.
I know these  options don’t have the capability that a  cougar or a black hawk or whatever. If any one else knows of any other type of medium troop carrying heli for relative small money then please suggest it!!!.  The RRF craft to based in Bal, the others either in bal or shannon
Transport fixed wing. -   2 transport aircraft preferably the transport version of the casa, or even the next larger version of the range (don’t know model number) maybe even one of these and have 5 maritime casas – 1 of which would be convertible. Used for supporting RRF and UN commitments. Based in Bal
Training – get  at least 4 more P-9s, some are going to get trashed.   Advanced training and flying the colors duties, even strap some weapon pods on.  Defiantly paint them gray – please not silver and orange  a la the fougas. Based in Shannon
  Basic training is at the moment done with the Cessnas, get rid of these. Basic , “very first flights”  plenty of private flying schools around , even do it abroad.  Should be able to get a good deal – regular  income for who ever does it – class of 12- 15 whatever every year, a government Is paying so pretty secure  money.
Light heli – training for tactical transport helis and light transport utility work, get rid of the three existing types(A111, gazelle, and Dauphins) With this outline SAR would be gone so not much need for such a  type.  Fleet of oh say 6, type, hummmm, don’t know open to suggestions, but must be (Relatively) cheap  and hopefully from one of the previously mentioned suppliers – Bell jet ranger  type  (isn’t the military version called the iriqois??). based in Bal.
Fighters (yes JETS).   Ok up to now I have been redoing as I wrote every time I thought I broke my rules (see top of post) I went back and either changed the number of aircraft or the type.  Now I have a soft spot for the notion that a country should be able to defend its self.  But bearing in mind the rules…ie … cheap, plentiful, useful. I had to think again.  First of all how many would you need to actually be useful if you needed them? Do you need two seater trainers??.
My  thought is 10 –12 plus 2 twin seat trainers half the operational aircraft would be in bal and half in shannon. Type?'> I liked the F5 ideas that have been floating about the boards for a while but where as all the other aircraft mentioned – some might be from a superficially old design, they can all be got in new or nearly new airframes. The last F5 was built in god knows when – not good for parts and spare, might be a load of them about to canabilise but these are all pretty old too and everyone else who operates f5s will be looking for the same stuff.  So not good!. My solution is similar to the Mil8/18 option for the tact helis. Buy a number of  fighters from eastern Europe – whatever happened to the ex DDR then luftwaffe mig 29s? they sold them to Poland or something didn’t they.  Buy some mig 29s (don’t laugh) and again go with one of the many companies that offer modern avionics .  another option haven’t the Indians bought the rights to licence build the SU 29 (no sure of number – nato name flanker) .
Mats. Stay with what we got, ie two A/C. buy the lear or least it long term whatever is cheaper – keep and upgrade the Giv. Other option flog the Giv and get rid of the lear and get two of the same of a similar if not a  bit smaller type to the gIV. Don’t know much about bisjets any suggestions would be appreciated – based in Bal


So total 48 – 57 all types
7 aircraft types (2 of which would be mats ).or 6 if we go with mats option 2.

Any comments would be welcome.

[alpha foxtrot 07]

i would agree with most of what you said as far equipment aand roles go. the blackhawk is not that expensive, as i said in another post the company based beside my office at work got a UH-60 and converted it for corporate use and spent a total of around 1million, get rid of all the leather and gold and new avionics and you got yourself a good heli at a good price. one last point, the cessna aircraft operated by the aer corps are not in any way utilised for cadet training, they were once used for the advanced stage but that was because the king air was down due to main spar problems.