Transport Aircraft

Give Marshalls of Cambridge free reign on those Hercs and you are getting a "new" aircraft.

2 X Pilots plus a load master. 3 crews per aircraft as a rule of thumb. 9 aircrew plus techs per airframe.

50 is wildly inflated. It's not the 1940's. 20 - 25 skilled crew per machine is relaistic and doable.

If they had bought the 5th pc12 maybe they 3 spectare NG models could be doing there jobs maybe even heading to the med with the navy

Yeah but sure the only way to transport heavy equipment or armoured vehicles by air is the A400M / C-17 bracket and the airlift partnership, or the aircraft of the 2024/25 EU Battlegroup nations, are the only ways that's going to happen.

In no universe are we buying a €180 million strategic airlifter, on our own.

Fair comment grassy. This attachment gives an interesting comparison. The more capable of the two cam transport two IFV' s and a helicopter

https://jetlinemarvel.net/aircraft-comparisons-between-the-brazilian-built-embraer-kc-390-and-the-european-airbus-c-295/?utm_content=cmp-true

The ISTAR equipped PC12NG could be an ideal maritime patrol asset in Op IRINI. It would be as good as the Polish An-28 out there at present. Or the Kingair 350 from Luxembourg.

Everyone is concerned about the PC12 losing an engine over water. Do they realise losing it over land is not exactly an ideal situation either? Lindbergh crossed the atlantic in a single engine aircraft...

He did, but Lindbergh wasn't orbiting near the Libyan coast above a scattering of dodgy sub-Saharan trawlers and freighters trying to get small arms and RPGs into Benghazi.

Of course operating single-engine anywhere has its risks, but no redundancy on an operation like this would be simply reckless and so won't happen.

Who knows, maybe when the 295W arrives, we may be able to spare a 295 MPA for Irini or other international embargo or anti-piracy ops. The right aircraft for the job and a great opportunity to get some overseas operational experience.

Because the previous 235s and, for the moment, the 295MPAs when they arrive, will be used as transport planes also, due to the historical lack of any such dedicated plane.

If we have one 295W and one 295MPA operational in Ireland and one 295MPA deployed abroad, we're still better off that we are right now.

We all know the PC-12s aren't suitable for Irini and we should stop pretending that they may be.

If we have 2 its because we expect one to be unavailable for a variety of reasons. Usually the non-flying ones. It'll take a year at best to bring the C295 MPA up to operational levels. The 3rd will jump straight in because we'll already have the pilots, we'll just need to train the guys in the back.

We will never have a spare MPA unless we have 4 MPA.

Whoever said that was mistaken. Before the bump in the hangar recently, one of the 235 has been without a functioning FLIR for quite some time. We had 2 flyable recently for a short period, but realistically only one available for MPA. Their usefulness otherwise is questionable. Keep one or both you have to maintain tech & pilot currency on type, and we haven't exactly got spare pilots & techies wandering around the don looking for something to fly or fix.

No offence but that talk of single engine over water is pretty much long gone among nearly all air arms these days, RN using single engine F35 daily over sea from an aircraft carrier etc

If a single engine prop plane has engine failure overland and has an APU, it can be glided to an emergency landing quite successfully on a short expanse of flat land and its position communicated. That doesn't apply at sea and you know this.

Ask yourself why neither the President or Taoiseach are never cleared to be flown on the PC-12? This stuff is actively considered in the AC and is part of the risk assessment of any mission planning.

Posters have said here in the past the state should have bought the Blackhawk. I reading some of the submisions to the CoDF and in one submission a person states that the board that where recomending rotary reolacements for the A3 and Gazelle actually approved the Blackhawk as the best choice rather than the 139?.

Is that true?

Did you ever hear such shiteball amateur hour reasoning in your entire life. No wonder the DF is a calamity of late.

Id say also the price of the aw139 vs a combat fitted out blackhawk also helped the DOD choice