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LE Eitne missing its turret

  • 25-11-2009 3:08pm
    #1
    BrianD
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,221 ✭✭✭


    The LE Eitne was in Dublin during the week but seemed to be missing it's main armament. Out for service? Being replaced?

    Is there any future for a helicopter for this ship?


Comments

  • #2
    Steyr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,266 ✭✭✭Steyr


    BrianD wrote: »
    The LE Eitne was in Dublin during the week but seemed to be missing it's main armament. Out for service? Being replaced?

    Is there any future for a helicopter for this ship?

    Hi Brian, as far as i know/have read on other forum's LE Eithne's flight deck is/was rigged for containers.


  • #3
    OS119
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,518 ✭✭✭OS119


    BrianD wrote: »

    Is there any future for a helicopter for this ship?

    i doubt it - the NS ripped out all the equipment (and accomodation) needed to enable helicopter operations and used the space for other things. you could 'operate' a helicopter off the deck in the same way you can 'operate' a helicopter from a car park, but the reality of an Irish naval vessel mooching around the North Atlantic for a few weeks with a helicopter operating and being maintained from that that ship is so far away as to defy description.


  • #4
    BrianD
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,221 ✭✭✭BrianD


    Pity that "naval aviation" is dead. Anybody know where the gun turret went?


  • #5
    OS119
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,518 ✭✭✭OS119


    BrianD wrote: »
    Pity that "naval aviation" is dead.....

    i think to decribe it as a 'pity' - particularly in light of Irelands massive EEZ in the North Atlantic - is to describe the recreational burning of children as a 'mild social deviation'!

    shocking situation. if Ireland wants the spoils from the EEZ it has to take responsibility for its policing - and 200 miles out into the North Atlantic means embarked naval aviation.

    its also a significant hamper in overseas operation by the NS in support of the Army: not having the ability to operate helicopters from naval vessels (even on an ad hoc basis) means that during that critical phase of disembarkation where the land component isn't fully set up and secure and is still reliant on the naval component for LogSpt, communications and security, a vital part of that - air mobility and ISR - is missing.

    that may sound a bit 'warry' for the sandal wearers and social workers who think that Irish peacekeeping (and peace enforcing) troops wander around with tulips hanging out of their rifles and who everybody loves, but i can think of one recent Irish op where such a capability would have been useful, and half a dozen other, recent, uncontroversial UN mandated PK ops where it was used.


  • #6
    ex_infantry man
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,827 ✭✭✭ex_infantry man


    Steyr wrote: »
    Hi Brian, as far as i know/have read on other forum's LE Eithne's flight deck is/was rigged for containers.
    your 100 percent correct!! it was equipped back around 5 years ago to do a drop to liberia as far as i know but never went to do it???


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  • #7
    diverdriver
    Closed Accounts Posts: 987 ✭✭✭diverdriver


    They would have to buy navalised helicopters again and have trained crews. Being posted to the Navy wasn't overly popular with the Air Corps at the time. (Being posted anywhere away from Baldonnel is not going to be popular.) So it's probably an experiment that won't be repeated.

    Military aviation in this country is only half heartedly operated. A token force of limited utility. If someone in government had some imagination we could have a useful small airforce rather than a big flying club.


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