Air Corps SAR

How did faith work out for the extra hull for the NS? Hell how did the attempt to get the CASAs work out, or the extra PC12 that was on offer?

In an ideal or even semi normal attitude to defence I’d say buy 3 Falcons, use one for government needs and everything else, and have 2 for top cover and support for other duties. But that’s not the situation we have with Irish defence is it? The reality is we are under strength as is and supping out training to other nations to try and reduce the shortages and only a few years ago we had issues manning the medical flight, so the idea of rapidly scaling up to support a Top Cover within 5 years isn’t likely. Certainly not with the abject failure to address any of the retention issues already.

I strongly believe we'd have a better chance of attracting more recruits if we had more equipment (rather than waiting till we have the people to get the kit.

I just believe it works. In the 80s, when the NS was building its largest ship that would carry helicopters, they mentioned in every article how they needed an extra 100 staff to crew it. By the time it was delivered, the crew was there.

Here's a pic of a ship/tank/aircraft? Want to work with it? Join now and you might be one of the lucky ones. (due 2025)

Hard to blame them. A tendering process should be silent, and there should be no public discussion of proposals once the tender process opens, until it is complete.

That's the norm for public procurement.

My thoughts exactly.

It’s not just limited to us, you only have to look at pretty much any defence contract particularly in the US to see such legal action after a tender no matter what. I’m sure if we were handing out any big contracts for non domestic procurement we would see the same.

DoD don't contract SAR, DoT does.

And I'm firmly of the opinion that's how it should stay. It's a civil aviation service, not a military task.

I've had this row with many before and what it comes down to for me, is that if a crew member leaves a private contractor, they can replace her quickly from a global market. If a pilot officer, or enlisted winchman working SAR leaves the Air Corps, there aren't replacements waiting in the wings and those replacements need to spend several years becoming military pilots first.

With the recruitment and retention crisis, the risk to nationwide SAR is too great by making it a military, or even partially military service.

The contracts are lucrative but once this is settled, it will be another 13 years before it's at issue again, all other service matters being equal.

You do remember how things ended the last time the AC was tasked to do SAR without the resources/people/capabilities needed to provide such a 24/7 service? Also I’m fairly sure the AC pilots don’t have too much issue currently moving from the AC to the private sector as is.