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« on: October 08, 2004, 04:56:30 am »
Firstly, may I may extend my smypathy to the unforuntate crewmen on the stricken submarine and RIP to the crew member who has, sadly perished.
What I wanted to ask was bearing in mind that we generally agree here that Ireland's Aer Corps and Naval service are er, somewhat overstretched what is a realistic timescale for them to be rejenuvated in? (provided some actual investment is forthcoming from central govt.)
Judging from the general tone of conversation here the dream scenario would be one in which a small fleet of modern, fast jets might operate out of Ireland. As realistically, this is unlikely to happen what do you think the main priorities should be in the next 5-10 years?
On a personal note I am astounded as an outside observer by the fact that Ireland has such a small naval fleet, which is tasked with patrolling a huge area. I know several private reports have strongly recommend increasing the fleet from 8 to at least 12 (and ideally 16 vessels) and restructuring the Aer Crops from the ground up with newer equipment. Sadly, since the Dail seem to regard Ireland's military with a certain ammount of disdain I see no future in which it will be modernised myself. On the offchance that it were though what would be the rough cost does anybody know of enlarging the Aer Crops to include say a small fleet of more modern SAR equipped helicopters and purchasing at least one more HPV for the Naval service?
The current tragedy shows it is important I think for the Republic to have it's own capabilties in this area, it cannot and should not always have to rely on the RAF.