Rumour going round on PPrune that CHF is going to stand up a Merlin squadron using airframes bumped from the Danish/Portuguese orders. Manned mainly by Culdrose crews but with a Jungly LH seat.

www.pprune.org/forums/...p?t=246393


Great to have a bit of relief for the SK4 crews, but is it permanent or is it the temporary PFI mooted some weeks ago?

Anybody shed any light?
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"I'll get some more guns sarge." " Yeah, and make 'em big!"

bet the pinger jockeys are cacking themselves, from dawdling around helston to helmatt

I've not heard of this - not surprising really, CHF are Navy when it suits 'em and Army when it don't! Seeing the recent fait accompli concerning 24 Regiment sprung by the Army, nothing surprises me any more.

i have heard from a colleague that the MOD is that desperate, westlands at the moment is overhauling v old pumas from the south african air force. How desperate has Blair made us??

I also heard yesterday over scran that the MOD is trying to acquire Danish eh101s to sort out the lack of heavy lift.

Also that the lions share of the crews will be from the far south west!

Seems this rumour has substance?
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Damn the torpedoes - Full speed ahead
"Ne conjugare nobiscum"

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From what I know of them, Cornwall's own airforce will be jumping at the chance!

And rather than getting hold of Dutch or other foreign ones, why not remove the sonar equipment from the RN ones. I know it is not perfect, ie: no big ramp at the back, but it can be done very quickly. Repaint them, fit a GPMG, and off they go...
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Isaiah 54:16 "And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc..." See, naval procurement is God's will!

If the RN Merlin has a different designation to the non-maritime variant, then given the bureacracy associated with Military Aircraft Release it would probably be easier to procure from an alternative source. Just look at all the trouble they had in deleting the gun on Typhoon - to remove the gun would affect the aircraft balance and would require full flight testing again; solution retain the gun just disable it (until batch 2 at least).
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It came off in my hand Chief, honest.
3 dits, 4 dits, 2 dits, dah, dit dit dah dit, dit dit dah.

Good point, but the RN Merlin is designed to be able to remove the sonar equipment in a couple of hours (or so), so that it can easily be used to carry stores to ship etc. The RN have about 40 Merlins, twice as many as the RAF...

It might seem a shame to use a lovely ASW aircraft in this way, but it seems we are desperate...

I'm sure someone somewhere is taking a long hard look at the current MAR and seeing whether its been written in such a way as to permit this tasking. While I can see the need to put restrictions on the operating envelope and permissible configurations of an aircraft, at times it seems as if the MAR is far too specific and proscriptive (but at least it keeps a large proportion of QinetiQ in business!).
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It came off in my hand Chief, honest.
3 dits, 4 dits, 2 dits, dah, dit dit dah dit, dit dit dah.

All good points, but something else to consider is the training burden. Even with a Junglie as LHS, the RHs will still need some sort of conversion.

When I was down there this summer, they seemed more concerned with that than the A/c conversion... but then they were aircrew and not engineers who would have to do it.

Looks like the return of the 'Pinglies' is upon us.

Lets hope they fair better than in '82 when they kept accidently crossing the FLOT at altitude (allegedly)!
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"He speaks the truth they dare not say out loud"

It's been done before - '82 and, more recently, for 845/846

The interesting thing is that if it did happen soon, (ie this winter) you would have Britain fighting an intense war in a landlocked, mountanous country, using the RM as infantry, the FAA as helicopter lift and the FAA for CAS with Harriers...
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Isaiah 54:16 "And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc..." See, naval procurement is God's will!

While at the same time conducting a large amphibious exercise off West Africa...BZ!
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Isaiah 54:16 "And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc..." See, naval procurement is God's will!