Not the cut out midships, further aft. I see where the RHIB on davits is located, but if you go almost to the stern, there’s a cut out on the bottom deck with what looks like a side scan sonar apparatus. I was just noting it as I’ve mostly seen that setup all the way at the stern as opposed to the side.
Story of my life, brother. Lol!
That looks like fun.
With 6 AOPS, 15 CSC's , 2-3 JSS/Asterix and let's say 8-10-12 of these unnamed/unknown vessels, the 27 Cyclones that we'll have available will be stretched unrealistically thin. By these future ship numbers, an increase in the order of magnitude of 50% would be warranted. Sadly, I don't see this happening.
I understand that but with a potential fleet of 32-36 ships and only 27 Cyclones, following the 1/3 rule things will be razor thin with virtually no redundancy built into the system.
What makes you think, going forward, that a Maritime Helicopter is the right aviation asset for all situations?
Now that is a question that I fully respect -
CCG leases helicopters and crews from TC. The government helicopter fleet could be expanded to have another 12 or so grey made in Canada helicopters that can do transfers, SAR, ice reconnaissance, resupply and support land parties, particularly on ships in domestic and Arctic waters. Both the RN and USN use leased helicopters on their "Non-combat ships".
The USMC have parked some relatively new UH-1 Yankees in Arizona that look like a Griffon on steroids. The really relevant item is the rotors fold for hanger deployment and they are already Marinized. We should buy about a dozen and split them to out fit AOPS and the AORS.
If only it were it that simple…
