DF Commission Report

I'm sure there are still plenty of zero hours S-70s sitting mothballed in a desert somewhere, waiting for a new "color" scheme.

I know the UK is an insane place at the moment but if they sell they EC135s to a Foreign government especially when other state organisations with in the UK could use them they should be ashamed of themselves.

It will be Ciara & Orla over again and you will than have the British establishment crying that they should not have sold them to a foreign government. Than again this is a country that still thinks Brexit has worked well

As far as I can remember...there is an agreement with the Brits that they would supply our DF with surplus kit at a nice friendly price. Time to take advantage of that now and snap up them 5 helos !

The Article below says it will be July before the New Army HQ will be decided. I can see the Mullingar Version of this paper running this story about the Army HQ but worded different

The Commission are the ones that said it should be located Geographicaly centre of the country not local political reps or the Defence Forces.

Interesting Enough I was in one of our lovely military installations during the week and a member of the PDF I was speaking to said this office of army force design is basically taken a clean sheet to the army.

So everything that has happened between 1913 and 2023 is behind the army. Nothing is off the table and army is going to be completely revamped to meet modern needs and may look completely different to what we have now.

If we started with a clean sheet we might encourage more recruits. People want to live in modern accommodation, not live the experience of the 18th century soldier. You can visit the Museum in Collins Barracks or Charles fort in Kinsale if that is what interests you.

We inherited much from our former occupiers, the National army put it into use so the other crowd couldn't. What they took they burnt down, for the most part. Everywhere in the state, there is some form of tech stores or workshop in a military facility trying to work out of what was either living quarters, or stables.

The defence Forces are the only ones who continue to tolerate this. You don't see AGS working from former 19th century RIC barracks, apart from a few that have been modernised to be unrecognisable indoors.

You definitely won't seethe state's civil service working from the same offices operated by the civil servants of the crown pre 1921. Look around dubln Castle. They may be within the castle walls, but the buildings they work from are all highly modern.

2 Cav in Rathmines store the motorcycles of the presidential escort in an old stable. The Officers Mess in Collins Barracks Cork was once used by Monty when he was Adjudant. The Hospital in the DFTC... well... thankfully its not used as a hospital now. 1 Caf used WW1 aircraft hangars for their armoured vehicles in Fermoy until they were forced to move to Collins Barracks in 1998, where modern climate controlled vehicle stores were built for them and the Artillery unit who had moved from similarily antiquated buildings from the 17th century in Ballincollig. Yes you read that right. A barracks built to protect the nearby gunpowder mills which supplied the crown forces with gunpowder to fight the American war of independence.

The NS, late to the party in 1947, walked into a barracks that had lain idle for 25 years. It focused on having someplace to tie up its ships, at the expense of office and sleeping space ashore. It's taken 75 years to put that right, and there is still a long road ahead. The fire in 2008 helped somewhat in that regard, with much of the antiquities being destroyed, and the need to store same evaporating.

The Air Corps struggled with WW1 era aircraft hangars until relatively recently. When you see that the RAF allowed one of their to be demolished for the making of the movie "The Battle of Britain" you wonder why we attach such sentimentality to the buildings of those who were here before. They hold no value in them.

Lets get out of the City Centres. Nobody else does it for their frontline units. The neighbours to the east had no hesitation demolishing Chelsea Barracks. Woolwich was similarily emptied of all but a few ceremonial troops. The barracks On birdcage walk remains because of the palace nearby, however the current King is not a fan of Bucks, so that may change too.

A modern barracks requires mostly the same things found in most industrial parks. Secure parking, office space, workshops, training rooms, Gyms, secure storage. This is why old barracks make great offices or colleges.

It be interesting to see what they believe the future Army will look like. Will it mean less bases or more bases. Bigger numbers or less with the Army's role changed. Less ATCP & Less overseas.

The biggest problem will be if they say for example close limerick and Cork to build a brand new central Munster Base that's where you would see politicians getting involved.

Would Kilworth be big enough to host all the units from Cork & Limerick or would they have to buy land to the north and south?

Plenty of room so for a modern base

Until the Army Design Office has completed there job apart from APC purchases nothing will happen with the Army

Small article on the restructure of the rangers as per the CoDF report. Nothing really that wasnt known

Certainly I admire the ambition behind the proposal, but I too would wonder about the ‘in practice’ piece. However, if they are to move towards implementing this, it certainly it should imply greater Capex investment in Haulbowline and Baldonnel not to mention more capable equipment - certainly helicopters in what ever domain they deploy would need to be up gear or two,

You would presume they would need a Helicopter based in the Naval base for the unit to operate correctly. There was plans for a Heliport and Hangars there but i think that might of been as part of the Air Corps Plan for SAR, Dohvelle would know better.

The unit in Casement would have access to the Duty Helicopter.

Also there is suppouse to be 8 super medium helicopters on the way along with 5 EC135s and then you have the current fleet of 139s but they might be ready for the skip.

Central Command to run the new radar according to the mirror. Apart from the USA, Norway is also buying the same Radar.

If its 3 units would that.be 2 on the west coast and the thirf on the east coast?