2 Chinooks destroyed in less than month! 8 remain in Afghan theatre!
Posted on August 31st, 2009 in Defence | 2 Comments »
The helicopter situation has again worsened in Afghanistan. Nato forces have been forced to destroy a crashed British Chinook helicopter to keep it out of the hands of the Taliban for the second time in 10 days.
Before the two crashes there were thought to be only 10 twin-rotor Chinooks, (key transporters), deployed in Helmand. The loss of the latest aircraft will leave British forces even more dependent on American Black Hawk helicopters.
Never before have we been so under prepared for a war…we are letting down the finest forces in the world.
2 Responses
At this rate we will have zero hinooks by Xmas
The real number of CH-47 Chinooks needs to be balanced across all coalition forces:
In March 2006 the Australian CH-47 Chinook helicopter detachment was deployed to Afghanistan, to be based at Kandahar Air Field, as Task Group 633.7. Initially, the detachment operated primarily in support of the Special Forces Task Group.
After the SOTG’s (Special Operations Task Group) withdrawal in September 2006, the detachment’s primary role shifted to support of coalition forces, “priority given to Australian activities”. The detachment consists of two CH-47D helicopters, and 110 personnel from the 5th Aviation Regiment.
The two Australian Chinooks were withdrawn in early 2007 for refurbishing, and the helicopters and crew returned to Australia in April 2007. In February 2008 the aircraft and crew re-deployed to Kandahar
As such, when counting helicopters one has to consider resources available across all commonwealth forces…
Of more interest should be the money being committed and declaired publiclly by our coalition partners:
The Aussie Chinook deployment received $57.6 million AUD over two years (including $43.0 million in 2005-06) in the 2006-7 budget.
In terms of protection:
INCIDENT INVOLVING AUSTRALIAN CH-47 CHINOOK HELICOPTER IN AFGHANISTAN
On 12 March 2007, an Australian CH-47 Chinook helicopter operating between Tarin Kowt and Kandahar, Afghanistan, was fired upon by what appears to be a Rocket Propelled Grenade.
Upon successful completion of the mission, a member of the media contingent on the Australian aircraft reviewed video taken during the transit that showed that the helicopter was engaged by what appears to be a Rocket Propelled Grenade.
No Australian personnel or passengers on the aircraft were injured as a result of the incident.
The Australian Chinook helicopters and crews operating in Afghanistan are among the best trained and equipped in the world.
Director General Public Affairs, Brigadier Gus Gilmore, said the ADF had committed significant resources and conducted intensive crew training to ensure that the CH-47 Detachment is well suited for operations in Southern Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan remains a dangerous place, but through their tactics, techniques and procedures, our aircrew are able to fly with a high degree of confidence,” said Brigadier Gilmore.
“Our aircraft include a range of systems and armour enhancements to increase their survivability for just this type of incident.”
The aircraft has recently undergone a $25 million dollar upgrade and has been fitted with a complete suite of defensive systems designed to mitigate against a broad range of threats. This includes electronic systems, weapons, techniques and procedures.
So what is the UK spending?
Last year U.K. defense spending was equivalent to 2.8% of its gross domestic product, compared with the U.S. spending almost 5% of an economy more than five times the size, according to Jane’s International Defense Review.
Since 1997, when the current Labour government came to power, the number of people in the U.K. armed forces has been cut around 20% to fewer than 175,000. During that period, Britain has fought in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and maintained a presence in Germany and in former and current colonies such as the Falkland Islands.
If this dosn’t sound bad enough, then consider this:
Accountants for the NAO examining 2008-2009 military expenditure criticised the Military of Defence (MoD) for being unable to verify the whereabouts of the equipment.
The NAO said equipment that had been ordered but is unaccounted for includes Bowman radios, used by troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, guns and ammunition, night-vision goggles and batches of body armour.
“We couldn’t find the evidence trail for the whereabouts for (this) 6.6 billion pounds worth of assets or what condition it’s in,” an NAO spokesman said.
“That is not to say it’s lost or they don’t exist; it’s to say there isn’t the trail to say where they (the assets) are,” he said.
Tory leader above has it all wrong. We may actually have loads of Chinooks by XMAS, but we will not know where they are.
Leona Lewis should become the Government’s spoke person on defense as her song is right on the mark….”Keep Bleeding”