There has always been a view that the Air Corps has been reluctant to dispense with its 9-5 working day, in order to be home by tea time/Coronation Street. It is a viewpoint that has been well earned for the most part, the long bare helicopter deck on LE Eithne is testament enough to that. The exception to that of course would be SAR, with the notable work of SAR deployments to Shannon, Finner and Waterford. We'll omit Sligo from that list.
There is probably an argument that the centralisation of all operations to Baldonnel would not have helped the stay home mentality. At the very least, Gormanstown provided some sort of multi base culture. It's Baldonnel or nothing these days, or so it seems. The cost of maintaining Gormanstown, a facility with a small tarmac runway and minimal navaids to upkeep(a single Non Directional Beacon that is still active anyway, if somewhat redundant) would have been tiny. It is a site that is still secured to this day by the Army, so one would have to wonder what savings it's closure actually provided.
So the perception now exists that the Air Corps is unwilling to operate out of its comfort zone and out of office hours. As an civvy pilot who has many times heard Air Corps aircraft on Dublin Air Traffic Control frequencies, I would have to say that there does seem to be at least a basic level of out of hours Army support activity that many board members are unaware of. Additional to the usual Air Ambulance movements, I have heard Air Corps Alpha Whiskey callsigns(AW139) operating to and from places like the Wicklow mountains to the Curragh in the late hours. So there is at least some movement in the right direction on the Army support front. On that basis and despite past track records, I wouldn't be rushing to say that the "will" does not exist. At least not these days.
The most obvious reason for the non full committal to Army support would have to be the number of available assets. There are currently 7 helicopters. One is available for 24 Air Ambulance, one is forward deployed daily for daylight only EAS. Factor in scheduled and un-scheduled maintenance and where does that leave the fleet in terms of its ability to serve its primary customer?
Frankly, while the Air Corps is being pulled in so many directions by tasks that could and should be civilianised(money permitting), it will never achieve any level of the required support capability to make the Army brass sit up and say : "Actually, this is quite a useful capability".
Whenever an aviation sticky plaster solution is required by successive governments, the Air Corps is always called upon to step into the fray and ease some public furore or other. It's all about the political optics rather than the best interests of the Air Corps or indeed the public. Until the fleet is left entirely to its primary purpose by its political masters, the Air Corps will not have the chance to prove themselves as a military entity.
In an era where the government is examining the usefulness and value for money of everything down to the door mats in public buildings, who can blame the Air Corps brass for stepping up to the plate when called upon. Be versatile or die quickly and quietly these days. In the long term the civilianisation of all these militarily superfluous tasks is a must in order for the AC to realise their military potential.
(This is NOT to say that the AC should be subjected to civilian rules and oversight at any stage. They should not. Ever. There should however be ongoing departmental level auditing employing an experienced, retired mid to high ranking officer of a foreign air arm overseeing all operational and safety matters, focusing on implementing international military best standards and with some power of enforcement)
So if and when the AC is left to its own devices to operate with a purely military mission statement the above mentioned Gormanstown would not be a bad place to start an off base short term "field deployment", in order to develope procedures and practices before deploying lock stock to somewhere like, well an actual field.
The obvious point is that if there is ever an aspiration to forward deploy overseas, the ability to seamlessly forward deploy at home must not cost the AC a second thought.
There is probably an argument that the centralisation of all operations to Baldonnel would not have helped the stay home mentality. At the very least, Gormanstown provided some sort of multi base culture. It's Baldonnel or nothing these days, or so it seems. The cost of maintaining Gormanstown, a facility with a small tarmac runway and minimal navaids to upkeep(a single Non Directional Beacon that is still active anyway, if somewhat redundant) would have been tiny. It is a site that is still secured to this day by the Army, so one would have to wonder what savings it's closure actually provided.
So the perception now exists that the Air Corps is unwilling to operate out of its comfort zone and out of office hours. As an civvy pilot who has many times heard Air Corps aircraft on Dublin Air Traffic Control frequencies, I would have to say that there does seem to be at least a basic level of out of hours Army support activity that many board members are unaware of. Additional to the usual Air Ambulance movements, I have heard Air Corps Alpha Whiskey callsigns(AW139) operating to and from places like the Wicklow mountains to the Curragh in the late hours. So there is at least some movement in the right direction on the Army support front. On that basis and despite past track records, I wouldn't be rushing to say that the "will" does not exist. At least not these days.
The most obvious reason for the non full committal to Army support would have to be the number of available assets. There are currently 7 helicopters. One is available for 24 Air Ambulance, one is forward deployed daily for daylight only EAS. Factor in scheduled and un-scheduled maintenance and where does that leave the fleet in terms of its ability to serve its primary customer?
Frankly, while the Air Corps is being pulled in so many directions by tasks that could and should be civilianised(money permitting), it will never achieve any level of the required support capability to make the Army brass sit up and say : "Actually, this is quite a useful capability".
Whenever an aviation sticky plaster solution is required by successive governments, the Air Corps is always called upon to step into the fray and ease some public furore or other. It's all about the political optics rather than the best interests of the Air Corps or indeed the public. Until the fleet is left entirely to its primary purpose by its political masters, the Air Corps will not have the chance to prove themselves as a military entity.
In an era where the government is examining the usefulness and value for money of everything down to the door mats in public buildings, who can blame the Air Corps brass for stepping up to the plate when called upon. Be versatile or die quickly and quietly these days. In the long term the civilianisation of all these militarily superfluous tasks is a must in order for the AC to realise their military potential.
(This is NOT to say that the AC should be subjected to civilian rules and oversight at any stage. They should not. Ever. There should however be ongoing departmental level auditing employing an experienced, retired mid to high ranking officer of a foreign air arm overseeing all operational and safety matters, focusing on implementing international military best standards and with some power of enforcement)
So if and when the AC is left to its own devices to operate with a purely military mission statement the above mentioned Gormanstown would not be a bad place to start an off base short term "field deployment", in order to develope procedures and practices before deploying lock stock to somewhere like, well an actual field.
The obvious point is that if there is ever an aspiration to forward deploy overseas, the ability to seamlessly forward deploy at home must not cost the AC a second thought.
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