No less than the Navy artificers, its a disgraceful situation.
CRM.
I got sent a link there for a article by Ken Foxe. I cant seam to link it of my phone for some reason but he won his FOI over the two UN Casas that where on offer. The Air Corps put forward an excellent buiness case why the state should buy them and of course the penny pinchers said no. Someone else might have seen it can they upload the document as it is well worth the read particuallry about the Air Corps looking to Join an EU Transport grouping
That greath Irish Line its not us its the EU!
With the New SecGen of the DOD if them casas are still available would she be more up for sourcing them
It covers the arse of whoever rejected the idea, it’s a standard tactic for passing the buck
Thats what the government love about the EU always there to blame
Just look at how the U.K. used that excuse from the minute they joined to the minute they left, and hell even after that.
The two CASA 295s discussed remain in storage at Castellon, as far as I can establish on-line. They are now officially registered in the Cayman Islands as VP-CEA and VP-CED respectively (they were previously Kenyan-registered). It would seem that no other operator has as yet snapped up them up, despite the long lead-in time for new production aircraft.
Could be a bit dodgy....They're not as rigorous at maintenance in Africa.
Wonder why? Could they be in rag order? As in, improperly stored and not subject to the routine maintenence such an aircraft requires, irrespective of flight hours.
To be honest, my sympathy is with the DoD with this one. Having had to procure services through the EU legislation in the past, I can confirm what a quagmire it is and also what exposure not following the rules can lead to.
If the Govt/DoD had simply decided to buy these planes, without any relationship to a prior contract, every maker and agent supplier operating in the EU would have come after them crying foul and looking for compensation.
Aren’t there more “loopholes” in terms of procurement in the defence sector, given how many nations play the system to direct orders to their domestic industries?
The other question I have is would the DOD gone on a deep dive of the airframe history to determine the state as you’ve pointed out, or did they reject it out of hand?
In the Air Corps document they refer to themselfs as the Air Component. I wonder will this be the new name not air force. The CoDF also mentioned the Army as the Land Component
Sounds a bit like the Belgian approach: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Armed_Forces viz
"The Belgian Defense Forces is the national military of Belgium. ... The Armed Forces comprise five branches: the Land Component, the Air Component, the Marine Component, the Cyber Component and the Medical Component."
Probably just internal jargon.
At every opportunity, Coveney and the General Staff are adamant it will be Army, Navy and Air Force, equal in status but an integrated force model.
Say we got them two Casas and we joined the ETAC , How does that work with use of aircraft?
ETAC isn't the same as the SAC programme, it isn't shared aircraft.
Its a European alternative to sending the tactical airlift components of small and medium European Countries to the USA to train.
You turn up with your own aircraft and crews and work with the facilities in Spain to improve operations and skills, presumably sharing learnings with other participating countries. Then there are a bunch of joint exercises during the year to sharpen up.
If we got those transport CASAs, we'd need not just flight crew and loadmasters to send over with them, we'd need infantry units, special forces and even light vehicles elements to participate fully in the benefits of ETAC. I'm not saying thats an impossible task, but we are a long way from operating routinely at that level. Maybe further into the DF change programme, ETAC might be an option.
Not a single IAC Helicopter has ever been involved in any Hotblade exercises either. IIRC they have been invited.
An they had there bags packed for germany but a certain department cancelled the trip
I presume these are the Casas in question
https://www.seraph.aero/news-stellwagen-delivers-second-airbus-c295-for-humanitarian-support-operations.html
I think these are the two, which visited Shannon in 2021.
Thr Business case made for them by the air corps made a lot of sense
I genuinely had the weirdest dream last night, that the two 295 MPAs arrived together and were escorted to the Baldonnell approach by the four PC-12s, whereupon the lead aircraft crash-landed on the edge of the runway, with the fuselage breaking into several neat sections.
The flight crew walked away, but it turned out the left-seat was Sean Clancy himself and he had a face like thunder.
You ain't kiddin.
They would have probably sent them to Seville for a Check after having had a tech rep examine the aircraft closely, especially the logs and older maintenance records. I'd bet Casa know all there is to know about the lives of these aircraft and their actual condition. After that, the country is full of people who can maintain them and fly them and there is always space to house them. It was stupid not to even have a look at them.
Sure they where probably worried they had no where to park them like the 5th pc12
Of what value is a 5th PC-12 really?
Can we even crew 4 up to their max potential service hours?
Personally I don't see any value in retaining a 235 for transport. They are too small and too short of range to add any real additional value, on top of the aging issues well rehearsed.
A proper tactical lifter is whats needed. C-130, C27J etc. A flying HGV, second hand from a European partner, tech support from a European agency.
Absoultley . They are single operation aircraft They have two operators to just get flight hours. A 5th would be common sense for a million reasons such as not using the spectares for taxi duties. You also have a back up for donkey work when the other is in for service
The Air Corps also clearly stated that in having a 3rd or 4th 295 it would help serivce rates
Back when the Don had "250", it had more jobs than crews to fly them; normal cargo (such as UN resupply or carriage of aircraft spares), parachuting, pilot and tech training, medevac, transport of Government personnel when the VIP aircraft was unavailable, standby Maritime Patrol and anything else they could think of. It was invaluable, no question and it filled the gap left by the departure of the two King Airs. It enabled the AC to go from shifting maybe a half ton at a time over short ranges to considering shifting several tons at a time over longer distances. It really opened up a lot of thinking about the role of transport aircraft in the Corps and for the wider DF. It also had the added bonus of closing down some obsolete "empires" and mentalities that thought that the Don couldn't stick up for it self and justify it's existence. PC-12s are nice and shiny but in terms of volume, they are just King Airs with one engine. Even an old Casa is better than no Casa and taken away from Maritime work, will last as long as one is prepared to service it.
When the two current Casas arrived in 94 did they keep the leased one for long after?
https://rzjets.net/aircraft/?typeid=76 says 250 was leased 06/91 and returned to CASA 01/95. It is with the Chilean Army now.
https://flic.kr/p/8dTL6v
