 | Home > Off Topic > RAF Getting more Chinooks |
 
|
|
|
| pom Member Since: 01 Jun 2010 Location: Worcester Posts: 1343  |
Good news for the lads in the stan. We will have the largest fleet in europe.
Pom |
||
23rd Aug 2011 9:30am |
|
| ibexman Member Since: 13 Dec 2008 Location: Essex Posts: 2955 
|
I love chinooks always wanted to have agood look round one
 |
||
|
23rd Aug 2011 10:31am |
|
| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610 
|
They're not getting them til 2015 the year we pull out! Let's hope they get the 'glass flightdeck' and the associated software issues sorted this time too! MOD procurement very rarely get anything right. Sure Glyn may 'chip in' with his pennethworth. If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!!
Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! |
||
|
23rd Aug 2011 11:54am |
|
| pom Member Since: 01 Jun 2010 Location: Worcester Posts: 1343 |
I really think the RAF should look at getting some P51 mustangs for air/ground use. They would be so much better than the harriers/apache's.
- cheap as chips no multi million pound software and avionics needed - 9 hour loiter time - awesome firepower. 6 x .50 cal is going to ruin anyones day. - could have at least 20 for the cost of a harrier. - no issues taking off in the heat (single roto choppers cannot take off a lot of the time in daytime heat as air pressure too low to generate enough lift) - save the taxpayer a fortune. - can paint teeth on the feckers. If it came to a shooting war with an enemy equipped with comparable aircraft as ours, then by 10am of day 1 our 50 fighters would be no more anyway. Pom |
||
|
24th Aug 2011 7:07am |
|
| RED-DOT Member Since: 29 Jun 2009 Location: stirling Posts: 2363 
|
I know a guy that works on Chinooks in a facility near Perth and he was quiet one day and decided to look inside a Chinook gearbox that was brand new and ready to fit... he found a large bolt in the bottom which was not a component used in the manufacture of the gearbox. It had been sabotaged and he recieved an award from the RAF for his work. He told me it would have caused a jam and rotor collision and we would have had another Kintyre. 2008 RS4 gone, 123d M Sport, and a Puma 90 XS..
|
||
|
24th Aug 2011 7:55am |
|
| Glynparry25 Member Since: 16 Feb 2009 Location: Miserable Midlands Posts: 3015  
|
This last tour I was on I didn't have any rides in helicopters
 ... Stuck on the ground, but from experience
Apache- Worth it weight in gold ten times over- Within 5 mins of rounds down you would hear the 30mm cannon open up and the insurgents turned into pink mist. Because of the RADAR systems it is also able to fly and fight in minimum/ no visibility meaning it can support you 24/7, 365 days a year. Lynx- Second best to the Apache- normally head out in pairs and will provide close air support to suppress any insurgents..... but 7.62 GPMG doesn't make anywhere near as much mess of an insurgent as the 30mm cannon fitted to the Apache. 
Chinook- Great load carrying capacity and the MERT teams are real life savers..... BUT, the Americans use black-hawks for their equivalent (PEDRO) and they can get to locations in shorter times which when you are talking catastrophic hemorrhage seconds count. We had to call on the Chinook only once and it took 25mins to get to us in Sangin, which in our situation felt like a lifetime and a half (Apaches were also supporting another call sign somewhere else so no air support) . But the two guys heading home were both stabilized before even reaching the hospital at Bastion. I do love the Chinook, but they are getting dated and there are better out there...... e.g. Merlin- now that is a nice helicopter to travel in or maybe a super stallion- a helicopter sure to get any chick wet!
Click image to enlarge
P51 mustangs haven't got anything on an Apache. It would have to perform 20 strafing runs and kill 50 civilians before hitting its target where an Apache can put a 30mm round up a fly's @r5e from a mile away.
We also had support from F22 Raptors and A10 Thunderbolt 2 and boy can they rip up an area in a short space of time- and the pilots really do sound like they watch too much Top Gun!!! Glyn  :sheep:
Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated  |
||
|
24th Aug 2011 8:51am |
|
| Mike_B Member Since: 23 Jan 2011 Location: Moray Posts: 550 
|
Merlin? Every one of my mates who operate the merlin cant stand the thing! Its far too computer dependant, complicated and unserviceable. It was made by agusta westland which automatically means it wont last. EHI 01 was originally designed as vip transport. The UK bailed AW out, by buying a load of them. They arent small eought do SF taskngs like the Puma could in Iraq and not big enough to lift the loads Chinook can in Afganistan.
Give me 5 chinooks instead of ten merlins anyday! They tried to fob Merlin off to us for SAR use and they were told n nomuncertain terms that it wasnt fit for purpose, or reliable enough to do the job. hopefully we'll pass em all off to the Navy and it can be their problem.... Apache is definately worth its weight in gold, but we struggle to retain the aircrew to fly them. Harrier was probably the best asset we had, but others knew better and retired it..... |
||
|
27th Aug 2011 6:58pm |
|
| Glynparry25 Member Since: 16 Feb 2009 Location: Miserable Midlands Posts: 3015
|
I guess you learn something new every day. I knew they were all computers and big screens instead of dials and switches, but what new isn't?..... I was on and off Merlins all the time in Iraq without any issues.......... and from experience, SF do use them  .
Glyn  |
||
|
30th Aug 2011 11:35am |
|
| pom Member Since: 01 Jun 2010 Location: Worcester Posts: 1343 |
Remember good ole Hesaltine was a head honcho at westlands.
A company I worked for a lot of years ago did a fair amount of work on the augusta eh101. The septics should have just let us build Blackhawks under licence like we do with the US Marines and the Harrier. Pom |
||
|
30th Aug 2011 1:54pm |
|
| Mike_B Member Since: 23 Jan 2011 Location: Moray Posts: 550
|
the issue with UH60 was who would fly them..... Army wanted to take all battlefield helicopters, but UH60 fell into the realms of medium lift helicopter, so it would have been an RAF asset. Thats one reason why we got Wildcat. Another reason is that Agusta Westland builds wildcat.......
Merlins are rubbish, thats why we're looking to replace Puma with Enhanced Puma and why we're buying more chinooks.... official name for Merlin was EHI 01, as in European Helicopter Industries Zero One ( the first helicopter build under the consortium of Finnmechanica, Agusta and Westland) However, a simple Typo, led to it becoming EH101 instead of EHI01 |
||
|
30th Aug 2011 11:07pm |
|
| noworries4x4 Member Since: 24 Dec 2010 Location: Newton Abbot Devon Posts: 1195 
|
After watching that tv program a while back where all those brand new never been used Chinnoks were being stripped down and compleatly rewired reworked ect ect so the avionics and systems all match our battlefield setups why oh why dont we buy them in as shells and fit them out as we want them shurly a coupe of million to be saved there.
If you have not seen it ibelive that series is being rerun soon on Quest it was the building of a Nuke sub, the very interesting Trent Rolls Royce jet engine, and the rebuilds of the Chinnoks, very interesting series If everything is under control you are not going fast enough. Every Day 16 MY Discovery 4 Commercial Workshop and Escort Vehicle Weekends 07MY L322 TDV8 Vogue SE Series 1 80" 3ltr 6cyl with overdrive No Worries 4X4 |
||
|
4th Sep 2011 9:12am |
|
| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610
|
I see your point but it doesn't really work like that! As I mentioned before MoD Procurement is/was an absolute farce. I can relate to a certain incident where a considerable amount of extra money was spent removing a useful 'factory fit' facility that would have saved a great deal of time and effort on behalf of the engineers who maintained the equipment. Were the engineers consulted during the procurement process? No! Undoubtedly to obtain them as mere shells would probably cost more than the finished product and then you would have to redesign/adapt existing equipment to fit and get the respective authority and approval to fly with it fitted which is a very long drawn out process! By the time it flies a lot of the technology would be outdated! If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!! Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! |
||
|
4th Sep 2011 9:49am |
|
|
|
| All times are GMT |
< Previous Topic | Next Topic > |
Posting Rules
|
Site Copyright © 2006-2025 Futuranet Ltd & Martin Lewis
