Transport Aircraft

if it won votes, then a century of not investing would have cost votes, it hasn’t. The DF and it’s wider support base is dwarfed by any of the other interest groups, hell I could easily see the same presser being used by the usual suspects including the President to complain about how we shouldn’t be “militarising so much” and 300 million for a ship would solve all other problems in the state (just don’t ask how)….

I’m firmly in the no expectations, no disappointment position, nothing the parties have done since the Russian invasion suggests they have any concern about how dangerous the world is getting.

why bother building MRV when most ships are parked up in both dockyards pointless at the moment until numbers rise in NS.

The only thing that would attract potential sailors to join the NS as a result of buying an MRV, is that they will have somewhere to sleep.

I love that this discussion is taking place in the "Transport Aircraft" thread. 😆

Pretty much , no matter what the circumstances of navy recruitment, you'd need to be planning now ,for a ship coming on stream in 5 or so years ( at the best of times the naval service is relatively small ,and a large extra vessel ,with new capabilities,and demands is a challenge/

, and in a scenario where the naval service is so understaffed , they probably should be putting a lot a lot of thought into why , and how they can get over that issue , and start acting very soon ,

“The record Budget funding will facilitate significant progress on important defence projects, including military radar, subsea awareness, force protection equipment and Defence Forces infrastructure. Budget 2025 will also allow the Air Corps to take delivery of the new Airbus C295W aircraft. This level of investment is critical in the current geopolitical situation.”

The above is taken from the DOD website. The poor Transport Casa is going to have a lot to live up to.

OK. I didn't know.

The increase is a paltry €100m for 2025. We're just not serious about it.

Micheál Martin, our part-time minister for defence, getting ratty again a couple a days a go around the question of freeloading.

Other countries need to be leaning on Ireland to at least do the basics within it's own airspace and territorial waters. It doesn't have to be mad or expensive.

This is a misguided take.

The DF is so shorn of expertise and operational personnel that even if you went from €1.3 Bn to 2 Bn, they simply do not have the capacity to absorb that kind of funding and convert it into delivered projects.

The Commission implementation plan shows where the budget will end up eventually, but this is a marathon, not a sprint.

And as I've pointed out many times, when it comes to beefing up hardware, aka capital expenditure, that's already covered in various capital allocations and Project 2040. New ships, planes, APCs and Radar do not come out of current expenditure, which Budget 2025 is for.

Two dozen Irish citizens left Lebanon on Friday as fighting continued between the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah.

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said 24 Irish citizens had been assisted by the Netherlands and Canada in departing the country.

“The citizens departed on flights operated by Ireland’s international partners and they are expected to arrive in Ireland over the weekend,” he said in a statement. “This is an excellent example of the importance of international cooperation.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/10/04/more-than-70-irish-troops-unable-to-return-to-their-unit-in-lebanon-due-to-ongoing-hostilities/

Indeed. An excellent example of freeloading

Anyway, we don't really need to buy anything, our 24 citizen evacuees from Lebanon bummed lifts today from our "international partners" in the Royal Dutch and Royal Canadian Air Forces.

This has happened many times in the last 10 years. They must be embarrassed in the DFA when thumbing these lifts. All we need is 2 medium - heavy lift aircraft. Only non-microstate in Europe that does this as a first and only resort.

I agree, its nothing unique, but we are in a situation where the whole World wants to buy everything, everywhere, all at once.

And those items do need significant, specialist project teams, which not every officer is qualified to manage.

Maybe they have put orders in and just not annouced it as with the AGS H145s

Take it with a bucket of salt and pepper but there seems to be recurring strong RUMINT that the favored proposal for the Mowag replacement is a French offer of a G2G deal for VBCIs/Griffons and Jaguars. Saves having to run a tender, competitive trials etc straight buy with good financing terms.