Great blog piece. You are so right it is criminal that these aircraft are not in Afghanistan or being converted for use in Afghanistan.

I live in the MATZ for Fairford and have been watching aircraft arrive at low level all day. It is great as we have a 1000 ft cloud base which means you can waive at the pilots ;0)

Today I have seen:
4 Medium Helicopters kitted our for radar and anti-submarine
2 Medium Helecopters kitted out for anti-ship & Anti-submarine
2 Attack Helecopters (to be fair possibly low level training)
4 Medium Attack Helecopters (Italian I think)
2 F15 Eagles

All in the space of 20 minutes.

What this must mean is that the 8 nm airspace between Fairford and Lynham (containing Wootten Basset) is now better protected than our troops in action. Small comfort for those arriving back I am sure…

Now I am NOT critiquing the airshow or the great job the dedicated display pilots will do this weekend. However, I would bet all the money in the world, that if you asked any one of them, they would deploy tomorrow to protect our troops on the ground.

It is CRIMINAL not to provide EVERY resource we have at our disposal to protect the lives of our troops on the ground. We must stop trashing money on banks and spend on urgent equipment. This in turn safeguards UK Jobs and prosperity..I am not a huge fan of Margaret Thatcher, but she went so far as to deploy the QE2 in the Falklands!

Save troops lives, not greedy bankers!

But knowing how the MoD mind workss…10 landrovers are cheaper to buy. maintain, ‘crew’ and support than 1 helicopter…therefore how do you think they will do the sums?!?

Thanks for sharing. Don’t worry everyone I hear Airwolf will be arriving in Afghanistan soon and that will be enough to win the war and also save Brown investing any more money.

Go Airwolf Go