Army at war buys 322 non-deployable helicopters...WTF?

[jmowreader]

The Army's got a problem with its aviation assets: they're worn out. Especially the Blackhawks that have been deployed to the desert.

The logical thing to do, of course, would be to up Blackhawk production. That's easy to SAY, but only one company makes Blackhawks, they can only make so many a year, and they're at that production level already.

There are a couple of ways to deal with this problem. In World War II we handled it by having multiple companies make any one item--witness the IBM rifle. (I'm serious. They made guns.) Blackhawks are much more complex than guns--they're full of parts made by companies who can't make any more themselves, and they're assembled using tooling only Sikorsky owns.

The second solution would be to purchase another combat helicopter--a Bell or something. Well...the only Bell combat helicopters available are rebuilt Vietnam-era UH-1H Hueys, which we removed from the fleet in the first place. Bell would have to design a new combat helicopter. Otherwise, you're stuck with buying Eurocopters or the Kazan Helicopters Mi-17.

The third solution is what they decided on: Meet the UH-72A Lakota.

It's an excellent machine--currently one of the most popular medevac birds. And basically, the Army is buying 322 civilian helicopters painted green. The problem is that its mission is "general support operations in permissive, non-combat environments."

What happens when the Army wears out all the Blackhawks and needs to send the UH-72s to war? Well...they can't go, that's what. Who thinks of this shit?

[MikeNearMcChord]

1. What you are witnessing, the military industrial complex

in it's dying throes. The greed has strangled the goose that lays the golden egg. I bet that those in the Army wish they were back in the days of Clinton. I am glad the late David Hackworth isn't around to see this.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I would imagine flying around in sand & dust would be pretty hard

on helos of any design, as well as any other kind of motorized quipment. We must really be grinding up a lot of stuff over there.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Other options???

[Trajan]

4. Damn that's pretty ...

[KansDem]

8. Damn that's ugly ...

;(

[benEzra]

5. I would imagine the Lakotas would be replacing Blackhawks in non-combat roles

so that ALL the Blackhawks could be diverted to the higher-risk locations. Remember that Iraq isn't the only place in the world where the Army uses utility helicopters.

The military uses helicopters for all kinds of things besides combat, including flying people and supplies around in various places. Most of those places are not in Iraq.

[jmowreader]

10. The Lakota's not a good replacement for the Blackhawk

It's a replacement for the OH-58 Kiowa, which is a Bell Jet Ranger.

A Blackhawk can carry 21 soldiers if you take the seats out. The only way you're going to do that with a Lakota is to tie the 21 troops together with a rope and dangle them out the door.

[benEzra]

12. Good point. (n/t)

[Kelly Rupert]

6. What's wrong with this?

First, there are many places the Army needs helicopters other than in Iraq. We move Blackhawks to Iraq, and replace them with Lakotas. Secondly, they could still go to Iraq and provide non-combat support. After all, the majority of Iraq (in land area, not population) is stable. There are surely places in Iraq where Blackhawks could be replaced with Lakotas, allowing those Blackhawks to be redeployed to Baghdad or al-Anbar.

[jmowreader]

9. Put yourself in the shoes of the 101st Aviation Brigade commander

This gentleman commands the largest aviation unit in the Army--in 1982, he had 450 aircraft to deal with and the number's higher now.

His unit consists of:

two Assault Helicopter battalions--which are equipped with the UH-60 Blackhawk
one Attack Helicopter battalion--which is equipped with the AH-64D Apache Longbow and the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, which are used together
one Heavy Lift Helicopter battalion--which is equipped with the CH-47D Chinook
one Aviation Intermediate Maintenance battalion, which keeps the other four battalions in the air
one Headquarters Company, which owns the Blackhawks and Kiowas used to transport VIPs
one Aeromedical Evacuation Company, which has the ambulance-equipped Blackhawks

Your task: Integrate Lakotas into this formation.

You'll have a few options, and all of them are questionable.

You could replace the Blackhawks in one of the Assault Helicopter battalions with Lakotas, reflag the battalion as a Light Utility Helicopter battalion, and maintain troop endstrength levels. (It takes a LOT to increase endstrength of an army formation, starting with investing a couple hundred million into building more barracks and hangars.) The disadvantages are myriad, starting with the fact that the reason the 101st has so many Blackhawks in the first place is that its whole operational doctrine is predicated on having enough Blackhawks to move a brigade of grunts simultaneously. Unfortunately for this option, it takes about two battalions of UH-60s to do it.

You could ADD a Lakota battalion. Now you have an even more entertaining problem: What the hell do you do with it? There aren't any empty barracks on Fort Campbell. I guess that if you were THAT hard up for space, you could get a shotgun, head over to the 311th MI barracks and start forcing the linguists and the interrogators into bonds of holy matrimony...that way you could justify having all your troops living off post. (There are two problems with this little scheme--it's illegal to do this, and about half the interrogators and linguists in the Army get married while they're at the Defense Language Institute. Besides, an MI battalion is smaller than an aviation battalion.) There are no empty hangars. There is no money anymore to build new. And if you try housing them in GP Large tents on the division parade field, half your battalion will learn how to be gay and the other half will smoke joints in front of division headquarters until the MPs arrive. Add to that the fact that Lakotas can't self-deploy to an overseas area--you have to fold it up and stick it in a C-5, which means you need more C-5 chalks to transport your brigade.

You could feed Lakotas into the assault helicopter battalions, but maintenance management would be a nightmare.

And when they deploy the 101st Aviation Brigade, you've got a helicopter that you can't really use for anything because all of Iraq is potentially hot with hostile Iraqis...and a Lakota can't be used in a hot area. I'd think hard about leaving the aircraft at Fort Campbell.

[underpants]

7. Don't forget Saturday 8PM the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl

Tulsa vs. Utah
http://www.armedforcesbowl.com/info.php

[RamboLiberal]

11. That's what happens when you outsource all your industry

Hate to post from a RW sight, but this article has a good point. This country is screwed and could no longer fight a global conflict the size of WWII. I know I'm grateful these incompetents weren't in charge during WWII or the Cuban Missile Crisis. These idiots were proud when they got armored humvee production up to 500 a month back in early 2005.

During WWII which was shorter than this stupid war numerous factories and shipyards produced 88,000 tanks, 2.4 million trucks, near 325,000 aircraft, 12 Carriers, 8 Battleships, 45 Cruisers, 349 Destroyers, 422 Subs and incredible tonnage of merchant ships.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?page=article&id=2430

The U.S. Defense Department runs a program called the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Materials Shortage (dmsms), whose purpose is to identify shortages of basic parts, processes and materials needed in the military. Brian Suma, who runs the dmsms Information Systems project at the Army’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, says this concerning the eroding U.S. industrial base: “We’re out here stomping on the grass to put out a grass fire but we haven’t looked behind us to see that the barn has gone up” (Manufacturing & Technology News, “Eroding Industrial Base Raises Concern Deep Within the Military,” Nov. 19, 2004).

One strategically important industry that has almost completely died in America is that of the metal castings industry. The problem has become so pronounced that, as reported by columnist Diane Grassi, the military even has trouble procuring weapon-system castings (attributed to plant closings). China and other Third World countries are now the major suppliers of castings for the U.S. military.

Ms. Grassi also pointed out that there is now only one company left in the U.S. that manufactures roller cutters for armored plate or heavy steel, and the only reason this company exists is that when the U.S. military learned that there was an immediate need (due to the war in Iraq) for Humvee armor, it expedited its manufacture. Because of the limited existing manufacturing capability, however, it took almost a year to get the armor plate produced.

Similarly, America’s only remaining company that produced a chemical used for binding windows and aluminum panels in aircraft was purchased by a foreign corporation. Due to failure to meet U.S. environmental and health standards, the American plant was forced to close. Now the U.S. must depend on the foreign company’s offshore factories to supply the chemical (Sierra Times, February 9).

The disappearing bearing industry might be an even worse loss for American security. Bearings are critical components of all kinds of electric motors used in automobile manufacturing, mining, factories and so on. They are also critical components of major weapons systems.