Some people never heard of a tender process.....

[Big Al]

http://www.freedominst.org/2005/01/n...air-corps.html

New helicopters for the Air Corps
Willie O'Dea is clearly a fan of the Freedom Institute Blog. Only last Friday we called for a substantial investment in equipment for the defence forces, and today the Minister for Defence signed a contract for four Utility AB 139s, costing €49 million. Two of these will be delivered in 2006 and two in 2007. In addition, another two helicopters - Light Utility EC135s - will be delivered later this year at a cost of €11m.

The Air Corps' helicopter fleet has been crying out for investment for quite some time. At present, the helicopters in service are:

Dauphin (SAR): 5 entered service in 1986, 4 still operational. Due to be retired at the end of this year.

Alouette (SAR): 8 entered service between 1963 and 1974 (yes, really), 7 still operational.

Gazelle (Training): 2 entered service in 1979, both still believed to be operational.

So we have 13 choppers, with the youngest due to celebrate their 19th birthday this year.

So what do the new helicopters do?

The AB 139s will be used for troop transport duties, air ambulance, inland search and rescue and VIP transport functions. It can carry approximately 10 troops.

The two light utility Eurocopter models will be used for pilot training.

While the investment is welcome, the lack of any heavy lift helicopters will leave our capabilities at their present diminished level. We would argue that the government would do well to acquire a significant number of UH-60L Blackhawk heavy lift helicopters, or their equivalent.

[Goldie fish]

At least they noticed..

[Roger McGee]

Gazelle (Training): 2 entered service in 1979, both still believed to be operational.

As far as I know one of these was invloved in an accident as well and the remaining one is rarely used due to the fact that it's the only one remaining.

[Groundhog]

Either the Alouette was an exceptional helicopter or we got stiffed with the Dauphin. The helicopter purchase is too little, too late. And a 2 to 3 year wait? Why?

[hptmurphy]

Dauphin in its basic model is a great machine...and would have been a worthy successor until somebody decided to start sticking inertial navigation systems on to it....the result was a fan had to be installed to cool the extra avionics and as a result the weightfigure increased...an auxiliary fuel tank had to be removed to compensate.....so range went down ...ad extras ..including soldiers and the max take of weight and range went even further down.....the bought the Dauphin to replace the alloutte and tried to fit it with a load of kit that had been on the puma......so it wasn't the machine.....just the misguided concept of what they wanted it to do.

[deasun]

at least they want more money for the Air Corps, so they're not all bad.

[Come-quickly]

Depends on how they plan to get the money

[ODIN]

The sorry state of our National Security
Irish people like to feel proud about the Defence Forces. And so they should. The men and women who serve in the three branches of the Military have served with distinction overseas on peacekeeping missions, have helped protect us from the threat of paramilitaries bent on destroying our freedom (while ironically claiming to be fighting for it) and have served admirably whilst providing aid to the civil power.

However, policymakers have failed to supply our military with the equipment it deserves. Our expenditure on defence - a woeful 0.6% of GDP - is the lowest of all 25 member states in the European Union.

Malta spends more than us on defence (0.7%). An equivalent (in size) nation - Lithuania spends 1.9% on defence. The EU average is 1.8%.

It's time for the gap to be closed. Starting this month, we will be issuing a series of reports outlining how to bring our military in line with the needs of a changed world.

It is time for the appropriate level of funding to be given to those who serve beneath the flag. We can't continue expecting the very best from our troops, while not giving them the very best in support

Another one of their articles

[ODIN]

But some of their links are a bit dodgy...like http://humphrys.humanists.net/blog.html

[JAG]

Some of the links here have been a bit dodgy too- hostage beheadings, videos of combat deaths, dissident republican websites to mention a few. Combined with the extreme views regularly expressed by members.

When someone complains about expenditure as a percentage of GDP, the usual reaction of government is to claim that our GDP is so incredibly high that, in comparison with France, UK, Germany or anyone else we are in fact spending twice as much as they are on health, education, defence, policing, transport etc etc etc. We have the best quality of life in the world, after all.

So I am, in reality, an ungrateful little prick for complaining that a ten mile journey to work in the greater Dublin area takes me approximately the same time as a sixty mile train trip to Paris followed by a metro to anywhere in the city. And the fact that I can't go to a doctor if I'm sick cause I can't afford it. And the fact that I cannot rely on public transport to get into work on time, nor rely on getting on public transport at all.

Lies damned lies.

Bitching session ended.