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This may be a tangent to the intent of this thread.
To focus on this half of the equation for a moment: Strategic Mobility
In the debate about projecting power we keep running up against Big Honking Ships as we try to recreate the capabilities of June 6 1944.
What happens instead if we were to focus on the period of 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949 - The Berlin Airlift?
Instead of building floating warehouses for a Billion dollars a pop, or having to find them, charter them, deliver them, load them, move them, unload them, inventory the contents, distribute the contents......
How about using the money to buy an additional 2 to 4 CC-177s at around $200,000,000 a piece? I assume that we have already bought the infrastructure necessary to support them.
Additionally we could also convert the FWSAR budget into additional CC-130s. Again I assume we already have the infrastructure.
With a fleet of even 6 CC-177s flying 10 hours a day we would get a conveyor that could shift some 40 loads a week on a 10 hour round trip. 40 loads equates to some240 160 (Edit to manage the unintentional overload) Bisons or 120 CH-146s.
Equally with a fleet of 32 CC-130s (17 Js and 15 FWSAR Js) also flying 10 hours a day the conveyor would shift over 200 loads a week. Even at 10 tonne loads (half loading) that moves 2000 tonnes of material.
The existing fleet of 5 CC-150s carrying 194 troops a time would only require 8 round trips of 10 hours to stage 1500 troops forward - leaving 20 to 25 trips available for moving cargo.
I think I am in the ballpark here and perhaps some of the lurking Loadmasters and Pilots can straighten out my numbers.
But.....
If you take those conveyors in conjunction with our new hubs (Jamaica, Spangdahlem, Dakar, Kuwait, Mombasa, Singapore, South Korea) and add to them Trenton and Comox as fixed bases..... see what Barnetts Gap looks like when you draw a 5 hour circle round each of them.
Staging an intervention force forward to a secure Forming Up Point within, let's say, 1000 km of a crisis zone should be well within our capabilities. From that point on it becomes a question of tactically delivering troops, CH-146s and Bisons into the theatre, possibly contested. I don't think the risk to Canadian troops would be greater than that experienced during an amphibious assault.
And yes, I am back to having fun with numbers ;D >
On the other hand somebody just recently commented on the folly of commenting without being able to do arithmetic.....
Good2Golf said:Airmobility - A capability of airmobile forces which permits them to move by air while retaining the ability to engage in ground combat. (NATO AAP-6. 1977-12-01)
Air movement - Air transport of units, personnel, supplies, equipment and materiel. (NATO AAP-6, 1994-11-01)
To focus on this half of the equation for a moment: Strategic Mobility
In the debate about projecting power we keep running up against Big Honking Ships as we try to recreate the capabilities of June 6 1944.
What happens instead if we were to focus on the period of 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949 - The Berlin Airlift?
Instead of building floating warehouses for a Billion dollars a pop, or having to find them, charter them, deliver them, load them, move them, unload them, inventory the contents, distribute the contents......
How about using the money to buy an additional 2 to 4 CC-177s at around $200,000,000 a piece? I assume that we have already bought the infrastructure necessary to support them.
Additionally we could also convert the FWSAR budget into additional CC-130s. Again I assume we already have the infrastructure.
With a fleet of even 6 CC-177s flying 10 hours a day we would get a conveyor that could shift some 40 loads a week on a 10 hour round trip. 40 loads equates to some
Equally with a fleet of 32 CC-130s (17 Js and 15 FWSAR Js) also flying 10 hours a day the conveyor would shift over 200 loads a week. Even at 10 tonne loads (half loading) that moves 2000 tonnes of material.
The existing fleet of 5 CC-150s carrying 194 troops a time would only require 8 round trips of 10 hours to stage 1500 troops forward - leaving 20 to 25 trips available for moving cargo.
I think I am in the ballpark here and perhaps some of the lurking Loadmasters and Pilots can straighten out my numbers.
But.....
If you take those conveyors in conjunction with our new hubs (Jamaica, Spangdahlem, Dakar, Kuwait, Mombasa, Singapore, South Korea) and add to them Trenton and Comox as fixed bases..... see what Barnetts Gap looks like when you draw a 5 hour circle round each of them.
Staging an intervention force forward to a secure Forming Up Point within, let's say, 1000 km of a crisis zone should be well within our capabilities. From that point on it becomes a question of tactically delivering troops, CH-146s and Bisons into the theatre, possibly contested. I don't think the risk to Canadian troops would be greater than that experienced during an amphibious assault.
And yes, I am back to having fun with numbers ;D >
On the other hand somebody just recently commented on the folly of commenting without being able to do arithmetic.....