PC-9 deployment

[Graylion]

If it was needed, could the PC-9s be deployed oversees to support Irish troops? Are there plans/logistics in place?

[Spark23]

No




Mod :I know that I have nanny nagged on about this before, but, once again please, refrain from the single word answers, they are unhelpful and do not paint a good picture of the expertise [or other] available on this site, thank you for your co-operation.

[DeV]

Not enough pilots or ground crew. No DAS. Needed at home to train new pilots. The PBH contract probably only only covers delivery to Baldonnel.

No plans AFAIK (for the PC9s)

[Turkey]

Plans for deploying the Air Corps overseas seem, at present, to be asperational in nature, which is an improvement on previous ideas, however in the case of the PC-9M's they were not purchased with that in mind and would be very restricted in what tasks they could preform, and would need a relatively huge logistic tail behind them, As far as I can remember only 3 of them are available to the central flying school, leaving only 4 for general duties. It would be far more realistic, at present, to concentrate on providing for 2-3 helicopters to go abroad, but there is about a similar chance of me winning the lottery.
Having said that, elements of the Air Corps were deployed overseas in the Libya crisis, where all personal involved rose to the challenge and did very well.

[GoneToTheCanner]

they are not fit to be operated as warplanes in anything but the most benign environment as they have no defensive aids, no armour, a limited warload, no night vision fit, no FLIR, limited bad weather utility....essentially pointless. You'd need to bring them to the level of a Super Tucano to be viable and even then...when rebels/terrorists/bad guys, in this age, have access to very effective handheld and vehicular SAMs, heavy machine guns and light cannon, you'd be taking a serious risk operating a small turboprop in open warfare these days. You can do a bit of digging on the Net and see how they fare; sometimes, they are very effective but other times, they cannot operate without serious defensive aids or back up from fast jets with stand off weapons.

[na grohmiti]

There is no operational reason why you would need to, or have to deploy a tandem turboprop trainer overseas.

[Graylion]

A.ground attack.air raft with rocket pods

[Sparky42]

A.ground attack.air raft with rocket pods

With no self defence systems, or armour or the capability to move them easily. Seems a bit much just for a small amount of dumbfire rockets.

[pym]

I'll preface this by saying I don't think there's any likelyhood of the PC-9M's being deployed abroad and sending them on attack missions with rocket pods and 50 cal, in areas where they'd face ZSU technicals or manpads would be utterly suicidal.

Generally it seems Euro neighbours are only too happy to deploy fighter aircraft in support of overseas ops, where necessary, probably to help sales and justify the expense of operating them.

The only role I could possibly imagine PC-9M's having is one where they stay high and well out of range of anything that could put a dent in them - so at a stretch, maybe an ISR role with something like a SCAR pod.

Of course if you send them 100 miles on an intelligence mission, you'll want to have a whirlybird that can go and pluck the crew out if the engine sputters. Unfortunately if Chad is anything to go by, trying to muster up adequate helicopter support is rather more difficult.

Would be interesting if the Cessna replacements are fitted with hardpoints so certain equipment could be rotated from them to a PC-9, but I'm guessing that's unlikely.

[Graylion]

Getting more choppers and an ability to deploy them strikes me as a highly useful ability. But then we would need dedicated transport aircraft. Not retasked MPAs.