ATTENTION Laura Schlessinger: Helicopter Shortage Hurting Afghan Mission
DL
Afghanistan, Bill O'Reilly created a scene with their over the top
alarm about the lack of celebrity in USO tours. O'Reilly is going to
take care of this and get Laura over there to entertain the
troops...??
(She hates women in the military but keeps that concealed)
BillO will call the DoD for Laura
http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/newsstoryPhoto/2007-07/scr_070730-D-7203T-003.JPG
I hope they get to ride the new helicopters, you know, something
special for their caliper of celebrity entertainment.
She can dance!
http://www.pbase.com/fletchaka/image/75176523
http://www.partamian.net/blog/uploaded_images/DSC00111-784292.JPG
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Helicopter Shortage Hurting Afghan Mission
http://www.afghanconflictmonitor.org/2007/11/helicopter-shor.html
Chinook Mark John, 'Analysis: Helicopter Crunch Hobbles Peace
Missions', Reuters AlertNet, 27 November 2007
EXCERPT: "In conflicts from Afghanistan to Africa, international
efforts to secure peace are being hobbled by a chronic lack of the
tool vital to all modern militaries -- helicopters.
"A shortage of top-end machines needed for tropical conditions plus a
reluctance of countries to bear the costs of deploying them are being
exacerbated by a procurement logjam that means a major renewal of
Western fleets is years off. Recent appeals for helicopters by the
United Nations, NATO and European Union mission commanders have faced
a deafening silence, forcing planners to study second-best options
such as 'rent-a-chopper' deals with the private sector.
"The shortage is hitting peacekeeping throughout the world [...]
Pointing the finger at Britain's continental allies, Foreign Secretary
David Miliband this month questioned how EU countries had only
provided 35 helicopters for NATO's 40,000-strong force in Afghanistan
and none at all for Darfur. The answer is a mixture of tight purse-
strings at defence ministries and a genuine lack of capability that
afflicts even big European military powers such as Britain and France.
"Tim Ripley, defence analyst at Jane's Defence Weekly, said the real
cost of helicopters was in maintaining and operating them --
especially in the hot and dusty conditions where many conflicts are
played out.' This is particularly problematic in areas such as
Afghanistan, where the air is thinned by heat and high altitude. 'When
we were putting together the requirements for the Afghan mission, we
discovered surprisingly few member states' helicopters were up to the
job,' said Ripley."
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ANALYSIS-Helicopter crunch hobbles peace missions
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27479777.htm
27 Nov 2007 14:03:15 GMT
By Mark John
BRUSSELS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - In conflicts from Afghanistan to Africa,
international efforts to secure peace are being hobbled by a chronic
lack of the tool vital to all modern militaries -- helicopters.
A shortage of top-end machines needed for tropical conditions plus a
reluctance of countries to bear the costs of deploying them are being
exacerbated by a procurement logjam that means a major renewal of
Western fleets is years off.
Recent appeals for helicopters by the United Nations, NATO and
European Union mission commanders have faced a deafening silence,
forcing planners to study second-best options such as "rent-a-chopper"
deals with the private sector.
"We should be better off when the new-generation helicopters arrive,
but the procurement gap only starts closing in about two years,"
complained one NATO official.
The shortage is hitting peacekeeping throughout the world.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned this month that the planned
U.N.-African force in Sudan's Western Darfur region would not be able
to fulfil its mandate without a further 24 helicopters to help cover a
region the size of France.
A separate EU-led operation to safeguard refugees spilling across the
border from Darfur into Chad and the Central African Republic is also
at least 10 machines short, commanders say.
With helicopter transport indispensable in Chad's savannah and
scrubland the commander of the 3,700-strong operation warned this
month it may have to be called off, diplomats said.
"Without helicopters, nobody moves in that kind of terrain," said
Andrew Brookes, defence analyst at the London-based International
Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
"Helicopters can do 3-4 miles (5-6 km) a minute and get you wherever
you need to get. On the ground, it might take 10 hours and the battle
is already lost by the time you get there."
Asked by reporters this month whether the United States could help
plug the shortfall in Darfur, Pentagon chief Robert Gates said there
had been no formal request but that the U.S. fleet was "pretty pushed"
between Iraq and Afghanistan.
For Chad, meanwhile, EU officials are discreetly doing the rounds of
would-be members of the 27-nation bloc such as Turkey to see if they
can chip in with contributions.
IISS's annual 2007 survey of global military muscle put the U.S. armed
forces' total helicopter fleet at 6,023 while defence analysts
estimate NATO's European members have around 2,100.
Pointing the finger at Britain's continental allies, Foreign Secretary
David Miliband this month questioned how EU countries had only
provided 35 helicopters for NATO's 40,000-strong force in Afghanistan
and none at all for Darfur.
HOT AND HIGH
The answer is a mixture of tight purse-strings at defence ministries
and a genuine lack of capability that afflicts even big European
military powers such as Britain and France.
Tim Ripley, defence analyst at Jane's Defence Weekly, said the real
cost of helicopters was in maintaining and operating them --
especially in the hot and dusty conditions where many conflicts are
played out.
"Every 500 hours of flying time you have to take them apart, and put
them together again. It is an open-ended cheque book issue and most
countries have finite money to spend on this."
Ripley estimated an eight-helicopter deployment for a year meant
setting aside 24-32 machines because of a need to rotate machines
every three months, not to mention a team of 150-200 personnel to
maintain and run them.
"The only (European) allies able to do this are Britain, France, Spain
and Italy," he said.
Even that assumes that those countries have the machines that can pass
the "hot and high" test -- that is, have the power to achieve
sufficient airlift in areas such as Afghanistan, where the air is
thinned by heat and high altitude.
"When we were putting together the requirements for the Afghan
mission, we discovered surprisingly few member states' helicopters
were up to the job," said the NATO official.
Ripley said only British, Dutch, and U.S. forces had the powerful
versions of the Chinook CH-47 heavy-lift helicopter needed for work in
Afghanistan, while Germany had a limited number of CH 53 machines that
can also serve there.
Military officials expect the shortfall to ease as more armies take
deliveries of European aerospace group EADS's <EADS.PA> multi-role
NH90 helicopter, but the question is when.
The group announced in July that the project had run into problems
serious enough for it to take a 105 million euro ($155.9 million)
quarterly charge.
"A lot of NH90s have been ordered that haven't arrived yet," said the
NATO official.
As a stopgap, NATO and EU are looking to rent out workhorse
helicopters such as the Russian-made Mi-17s to take over the least
challenging transport tasks in places such as Chad and Afghanistan,
freeing up core fleets for vital operations. (Additional reporting by
Andrew Gray in Washington, editing by Peter Millership)