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  • Tri-Service Exercise

    Irish Air Corps Live Firing Exercise

    During the last week of June the Irish Defence Forces conducted a joint tri-service live fire exercise involving the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps, using targets in the sea in the Delta 13 danger area off Dunowen, Co Cork.



    Units from Collins Barracks, Cork brought 105mm howitzers and MOWAG armoured troop carriers with their heavy machine guns. Early in the week Naval cover was provided by LÉ Eithne, P31 which installed the large, inflatable floating targets. Shooters aimed to hit close to but not on the target to maintain its availability for the duration.


    LÉ Orla P41 with orange inflatable target on after deck

    An Air Corps detachment from Baldonnel to Waterford Airport saw Pilatus PC-9Ms fitted with heavy machine gun and rocket wing pods make numerous runs at Dunowen over three days. For each mission aircraft were armed at Waterford and based there. Their inboard 0.5 heavy machine gun pods hold 250 rounds per gun or 500 in total. Two outboard rocket pods are each capable of holding seven high explosive rocket heads. These 2.75in folding frame rockets are used in the air to ground attack role.


    PC-9M fitted with gun pods inboard and rocket pods outboard


    PC-9Ms firing rockets at target. They make quite a splash and bang!


    Naval Service LÉ Orla and Air Corps AW139 intercepting a yacht that had entered the firing range exclusion zone

    An AW139 helicopter operating daily to Dunowen provided airborne range security and logistic functions. This was needed on the Thursday when a yacht sailed into the designated temporary exclusion zone of the firing range, causing a halt to firing. It was quickly intercepted by the AW139 and then by the Naval Service’s LÉ Orla, P41.

    Such exercises provided a useful tool for all crews to keep current with their firing proficiency and also for support and ground crews to deploy away from base to maintain their operational capability.

    During the last week of June the Irish Defence Forces conducted a joint tri-service live fire exercise involving the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps, using targets in the sea in the Delta 13 danger area off Dunowen, Co Cork.  Units from Collins Barracks, Cork brought 105mm howitzers and MOWAG a
    Last edited by Rhodes; 14 July 2018, 21:11. Reason: fix pics

  • #2
    Ha.... wonder if anyone put a round through the targets ...
    "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"

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    • #3
      Instructions NOT to hit the target would be quite easy to follow, I would have thought. Brings a new meaning to the old "Sure that'll do"!

      Was there a prize for whoever missed it by the widest margin?
      Last edited by Flamingo; 14 July 2018, 15:36.
      'He died who loved to live,' they'll say,
      'Unselfishly so we might have today!'
      Like hell! He fought because he had to fight;
      He died that's all. It was his unlucky night.
      http://www.salamanderoasis.org/poems...nnis/luck.html

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      • #4
        Killer tomatoes don’t grow on trees you know

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        • #5
          Were the 105's firing out to sea?
          'History is a vast early warning system'. Norman Cousins

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          • #6
            Don't think there is anywhere else they can fire at max range.
            For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by spider View Post
              Were the 105's firing out to sea?
              yes

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Flamingo View Post
                Instructions NOT to hit the target would be quite easy to follow, I would have thought.
                That would only have applied to the Aer Corps who needed their target for 3 days while they made a foray outside the fence of Baldonnel to Waterford airport.
                The Cav had a smaller killer tomato about 2km out which was sank.
                Arty had danbuoy type targets at 4km and 8km which were also hit but don't sink very easily.
                Virtual radar controlled targets were engaged out to 12km. (16km on last years shoot)

                Towards the end of the day when the 2km target was gone, the cav did make a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to engage the aer corp's tomato with barrels pointed up into the air.
                It was like little boys at the men's urinals.
                Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

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                • #9
                  bout time they started investing in drones and using the RBS70
                  Should be safe enough.

                  MOD EDIT: OPSEC. As has been said before don't discuss the specific capabilities of weapons such as these.These weapons are used in live ATCP OPS,often to protect some very important people.Let's not do a potential aggressors homework for them.OK.
                  Last edited by apod; 23 July 2018, 20:01.
                  "He is an enemy officer taken in battle and entitled to fair treatment."
                  "No, sir. He's a sergeant, and they don't deserve no respect at all, sir. I should know. They're cunning and artful, if they're any good. I wouldn't mind if he was an officer, sir. But sergeants are clever."

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by morpheus View Post
                    bout time they started investing in drones and using the RBS70
                    Should be safe enough, it has 8 km (5.0 mi) range and can reach an altitude of 5 km - no?

                    Live fire RBS70 is done in Sweden

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                    • #11
                      My point exactly, no reason to not have a range here, jaysus we own more EEZ than most of the rest of europe in which to test such systems.
                      "He is an enemy officer taken in battle and entitled to fair treatment."
                      "No, sir. He's a sergeant, and they don't deserve no respect at all, sir. I should know. They're cunning and artful, if they're any good. I wouldn't mind if he was an officer, sir. But sergeants are clever."

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                      • #12
                        While the range may be limited, we have a busy airspace and there is deemed to be an outside risk that the missile could latch on to something outside of that so the required danger zone would be too big.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Bravo20 View Post
                          While the range may be limited, we have a busy airspace and there is deemed to be an outside risk that the missile could latch on to something outside of that so the required danger zone would be too big.
                          The RBS 70 has to be aimed at a target and guided to the target, it is not fire and forget so would be unlikely to hit anything it was not directly aimed at.

                          The maximum range for the 40mm bofors according to Wiki is L/60: 7,160 m
                          and the L70: 12,500 m .

                          Both were fired at Gormanstown until relatively recently. The reasons it is not being fired in Ireland may be because the Swedish have all the back up gear and experience needed to facilitate a shoot.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Bravo20 View Post
                            While the range may be limited, we have a busy airspace and there is deemed to be an outside risk that the missile could latch on to something outside of that so the required danger zone would be too big.
                            The RBS-70 is a laser beam riding missile, it goes where the laser is pointing so unless some eejit is pointing the designator at an airline the risk is low, it does not have the ability to "latch on to something". This would not be the same with an IR guided missile.
                            As for a GA aircraft wandering into the firing range the risk is no greater than when the PC-9 boys fire their rockets, small and manageable.

                            However an air combat range even for SHORAD missiles is a lot more complex than a killer tomato. Given the likely number of missiles we have it would not be justified and as long as we give the Swedes the correct notice & paperwork they have no problem letting us use their range.

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                            • #15
                              I didn't say there was any proper basis for this stance. This was just the answer I got when I asked someone of the appropriate level who should have had the appropriate knowledge.

                              Financially it makes more sense to use the Swede's facilities.

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