Airbus C-295 to replace Casa C-235

Government issue hotel rooms are what I'm used to. It's the feeling of the carpet under your toes. Like brillo pads but not as clean. The search to find what part of the bathroom doesn't work. Turning the TV up loud enough that (a) you can hear it and (b) you can't hear the "noise" from the room next door. Going for early breakfast only to realise breakfast is not served on weekends or Thursdays.

I see that the Brazilian armed forces have cancelled about 50% of their order for the KC 390 airlifter. This frees up some production slots which would mean a timely opportunity to place an order for one or two of these for early delivery.

I don't imagine that the running costs of one aircraft is going to cripple the economy, given that it will be fairly lightly used. In fact the AC could probably make some money doing a bit of charter work on an ad hoc basis

To be fair, weren't the RG32M's from South Africa?

Its absolutely correct that the Ford Ranger and the RG32 are built in South Africa, however procurement was through Ford of Europe and BAE Land Systems UK respectively.

Just as with Pilatus, where much of the mission kit was fitted in Colorado, it is to be expected that a fair bit of all the hardware we use will have components or assembly processes that do take place all over the World, but we do in the main procure through the European interests of whatever we entity is successful in procurement.

Completely off topic, but the workmanship on the Panhard upgrade was woeful. Holes were chopped in the turret to fit monitors in, instead of sourcing monitors that would fit in the first place. What would happen in the event of the vehicle being fired upon at this weak spot was obvious to all. The "New" engine they stuck in was the standard Peugeot 2 litre Diesel that you would have found on a farmers 407 van, instead of something designed to pull the 4 tonne car it was, like a Ford transit engine. First trip overseas with it after upgrade and it was clear the engine was a dud. They couldn't keep up with the Mowags. While the upgrade changed the engine it didn't fix the useless brakes.

You lost all the internal coax ammo storage completely (that's why they added the external bins) and because of internal monitor location, mounting coax was only possible by someone with tiny hands, after aligning the gun at max elevation something that couldn't be done from the coax side) so suddenly you needed 3 people to load the car, instead of 2.. One outside, one in gunner seat, one in commander seat.

Oh, while the rangefinder and night optic had their own wipers now, the main sight still didn't. First shot I made the back pressure threw up all the mud of the glen on the hull front. Not very tactical having to climb out and wipe down the armoured sight window.

Because they were better than nothing, and nothing was the other option. Prior to that you had the car struggling with a petrol engine, but it was working with the M3 that had the same petrol engine. At that stage the LTAV were only being considered, and there was no plan to get Cav Mowags.

Consider also the first attempt to modernise the Panhard started in 1984(they tested a Fox Turret on an AML60), they finally decided on it in 2000!

But that is a million miles from Maritime patrol...

No.

Never has been, never will be.

Something on the new systems of the upcoming CASAs:

https://leica-geosystems.com/en-US/about-us/news-room/news-overview/2021/11/hexagon_announces_partnership_with_airbus

We aren't the launch customers, we're the Beta Testers.

The Question is , is it free and do we get to keep it if it works

Very respected company Leica. Their equipment is top quality. Always has been.

Could this gear be the first proper Irish DF capacity for pinging submarines or can the current MPAs do that?

The current Casas must struggle to do MPA work these days i see one on its way back from poland landing in cork shortly

I wouldn't have thought it's deliberate. The PC-12s simply don't suit certain sorts of air ambulance flight, where you have incubators or both a mother and child as individual patients who need to remain together.

Unquestionably though, it does add to the argument for a dedicated lifter, but it's not a new argument either, it must be at least 20 years in the making.