CF-18's were to have been sent to Afghanistan but....

[Nark]

Air support is part of any well planned mission.

Say that convoy does roll over an IED. Do you think we just drive the victims back to the nearest aid station? Or do you think we try to organize a medevac?

Where do you think that extra fire power comes from when the ground forces run into resistance?

Air power is very alive and well in this (these) war.

Guido, we as Marines, have been walking the streets since day one, getting "facetime". Perhaps your confusing what your seeing on CNN.

[Guido]

Guido, we as Marines, have been walking the streets since day one, getting "facetime". Perhaps your confusing what your seeing on CNN.

Like I watch CNN... I was going to cite the article, but I didn't have time to hunt it down. It was from Wired Magazine (online) interviewing a general... Petraeus, maybe? Perhaps it only applied to the army, but it was talking about some of the changes in tactics they were making just before the "surge" was implemented. It was quite an interesting read... gave me a lot of hope for the mess over where you are. I'll see if I can't find it, I'm sure it would interest you.

edit

Here it is : http://www.wired.com/politics/security/ ... rentPage=1

/edit

[EI-EIO]

As far as additional chopper support goes the emphasis has been on the Griffons when the armoured side showed how it can be done - get a nation with suitable spare equipment who's not really using it and lease/loan/buy it.

The British are solving part of their support helicopter gap by finally admitting their grounded Chinook HC3s are a bust and downgrading them to HC2s so they can actually be used, and by acquiring Merlin HC3As from Denmark (who didn't need them at the time).

As for not taking the -18s to Afstan, the US was pretty glad to have -18s in Alaska for a while when the F-15 fleet was grounded.

[GilletteNorth]

At an informal meeting of NATO defence ministers last fall in Noordwick, Holland, the shortage of helicopters was among the biggest issues. With members either unable or reluctant to deploy their aircraft, the alliance approved a scheme to rent civilian choppers for hauling cargo in Afghanistan.

I find this an interesting quirk of modern warfare. Can't afford proper military equipment (guess budgeting for $200,000 toilets is too much) and a government actually putting a 5-10 million? dollar helicopter in harms way is flaunting the odds, so get civvies to fight the wars instead. Guess capitalism wins the day for the free market to do the job the military should be doing LOL.