I actually have a super power. I can look into the future. Let me just take a glance at this...we’ll see how this first LIB fly over ex goes.
Is the timing of arrival flexible based on whether we actually can get serviceable A/C together or if the aircrew wants a nice layover in Malaga?Light Infantry Battalion. Starting this fall, once a year the high readiness LIB will deploy to Latvia for a couple months to demonstrate and exercise the fly over capability.
Exercise the fly-over capability, or just fly-over and then exercise? Subtle nuance but the first option is much more challenging for the RCAF to exercise how it’s going to get through Russian AAAD to deliver a LIB to Latvia. The second option ignores that problem and administratively flys the LIB into theatre for a ground exercise.Light Infantry Battalion. Starting this fall, once a year the high readiness LIB will deploy to Latvia for a couple months to demonstrate and exercise the fly over capability.
So, we hope Russia will not contest a build-up when we reach the point of believing war is about to start? I suspect Russia would have attempted to interdict the western arms flights into Ukraine if it though war with NATO was an imminent inevitability.I am not sure we would want to be flying the LIB in after a war has started, I would imagine we would want to get it on the ground before hostilities actually start, same as we flew weapons into UKR prior to the invasion.
I think we assume we respond to their build up in kind. We watched them build up for Ukraine for months, I assume they’ll need similar time for a war with NATO. Fun thing about Russian Air defences / air superiority, NATO gets a vote in that. They could establish Air Superiority against Ukraine, I don’t see them having an easy time vs NATO.So, we hope Russia will not contest a build-up when we reach the point of believing war is about to start? I suspect Russia would have attempted to interdict the western arms flights into Ukraine if it though war with NATO was an imminent inevitability.
Interestingly enough the deployment of the LIB going to Op REASUSSANCE in Latvia is specifically and explicitly NOT the GRTF construct although it is the Bn that is filling the GRTF role.
The GRTF expressly does not include reserves due to the HR timelines yet the LIB deployment has significant reserves augmentation due to the manning pressures in the Bns.
I was never worried about them, or any other dedicated AD equipment.23-4s are still in service, the M mounts man pads. To a helo that’s going to be coming low and slow I’d have serious worries.
444 Squadron was a 4 CMBG unit, like any other, with a dotty line to 10 TAG HQ for such things as aircrew and tech training, flying and maint standards, flight safety etcetera. While a somewhat less-than-perfect arrangement, it was much, much better operationally.Interestingly the aviation is commanded directly by the ground force commander ( Bde Comd). That’s a departure from doctrine as practiced by the RCAF for over 20 years where the aircraft were commanded by an Air component command with it’s own commander.
Would be interesting to know more about that decision and the reasons behind it.
RCAF Today Magazine
issues.skiesmag.com
When I become God Emperor, I shall correct the current Liberal travesty and return Tac Hel to its original, historical, and rightful place.Maybe it’s the first step for Tac Hel to become 1 Avn Regt
I take it that they remembered to unchain the tailboom of the rear-most Griffon before lowering the ramp this time.
Tac Hel and ignoring AD, GTL, and ACMs, name a more iconic duoI was never worried about them, or any other dedicated AD equipment.
Our tactical limits were skids clear of ground and one-half rotor diameter from vertical obstacles. There would be plenty of treelines, villages, and cows between them and us, and there were only a handful of ZSUs, SA-9s, and SA-13s in a Motor Rifle or Tank Regiment. What really concerned me was the much greater number of 7.62 mm, 12.7 mm, 14.5 mm, 30 mm, 76 mm, 115 mm, and 125 mm weapons that would have been between them and me and occupying/moving through terrain that made them much, much harder to see - and they could engage us at much lower altitudes.
My Observer and I spent a very pleasant hour or so sneaking up on an active Skyguard AD radar atop a low, dome-like, bald hill a few hundred metres from the Contraves factory one sunny afternoon in 1988 or 1989. We were just flying along on the opposite side of a low ridge on our way back to Lahr from somewhere else when we caught a very distinctive and previously-unobserved signal on our radar warning receiver as we passed a gap in the ridgeline. Having nothing better to do, we decided to check it out. There was a small town on the far side of the hill, so we worked our way around there so that we could have some backdrop to provide a little clutter. We kept inching forward to see how close we could get without being spotted. We could plainly see the box with the antenna spinning around above it, a handful of chaps lounging around on lawn chairs, and a couple of guys in business suits. Their generator probably masked our sound, and I always tried to stay downwind of a target. We were only a couple of hundred metres away when I began a slow vertical climb as we really needed to be on our way at that point. We had a good giggle as lawn chairs went flying and their occupants dashed into the box, then dipped our nose and lazily turned Lahr-bound as my Observer waved from his doorway (I preferred to fly with front doors removed whenever possible).
The thought of having cost them a contract gave us a good chuckle . . .
"GTL"?Tac Hel and ignoring AD, GTL, and ACMs, name a more iconic duo
Fixed that a bit.Surely they won’t give the power of the 1 Wing, to wule them and in the darkness bind them.