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Sensors beyond the mk I eyeball make it a better Search platform.
Canada moves to 2% GDP end of FY25/26 - PMMC
- Thread starter Maxman1
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Additional lines of tasking require additional aircraft. If the RCAF sees growing demand, then it is possible that the fleet would grow, likely keeping some (four?) configured for VVIP, and the rest (six?) more easily configured for more pax / cargo /medevac.
There are many tasks where a small transoceanic aircraft makes more sense than a larger one.
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The other 4 are to replace the snowbirds, lol.
Equally? No. In many situations? Yes. Most people (especially non-technical types) don't understand the underlying principles behind Moore's Law: learning curves (and corollary Experience Curves) . People forget that Moore's Law is a specific application of learning curves to IC manufacturing. Before that we famously had Wright's Law during WWII on aircraft production. Wright found that every time total aircraft production doubled, the required labor time for a new aircraft fell by 20%. Best understood if plotted on log plots.
We see the same thing today with batteries and solar panels. Similar principles to semiconductor manufacturing applies. And well solar panels are literally semiconductors. There's a predictable cost decline for every cumulative doubling of the installed base.
And since small drones are mostly about batteries and microprocessors their costs drop as manufacturing capacity in those components increases and commodity prices decline. Not an accident that China dominates small drones. And not an accident that the vast majority of commentators on the topic are clueless about why. People were starting to clue in that an EV industry was necessary to strategically sustain defence production of things that need batteries. But that understanding seems to have gone out the window recently. I wouldn't expect the US to catch up to China on cheap drones. Ever. Well maybe if they are using Chinese batteries......
Perhaps finally providing a replacement aircraft for the cosmo. For those under 50, the CAF used to run regular scheduled flights from base to base across Canada using an airframe that was based on the CV44/54. Incidentally, it wasn't our first choice; that was the viscount but Canadair had bought the rights to the convair and was looking for a market.
Anyway, maybe they plan to revive that schedule; it had a lot of validity. We move a lot of personnel and a lot of small freight on a regular basis paying premium prices.
So there might be a return of the Challenger Blue fleet for JTF 2 and other high priority moves then?
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I would actually pay good money to watch a four ship Global 6500 air display…
I've seen a Herc 4-ship in trail. Something like that I imagine?
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The sensors are mostly agnostic to the airframe, the C-127J would have the same sort of setup. What I am thinking here is actually in regards to a tactical transport version for short rough airfields. I don't think the Airbus airframe is rated for those, but would be happy to be proven wrong.
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But the squadrons were originally Transport and Rescue squadrons.
Rescue means picking up someone whose location is known. An easy extension of the Transport role especially if the aircraft is designed to land short on grass, gravel, ice or water.
Finding the lost is another matter.
We bought 17? high tech searchers that cost a fortune and are more at home on asphalt runways.
How many short field transport aircraft and Bell 412s could we have bought for the money? Even if we equipped them all with WESCAM MX-8s.
With them widely distributed in the hands of local pilots I think response times snd local perceptions would both improve.
Cheap transport has a value all its own.
This is ignorant to how SAR works. When they get a call that is far away, the FWSAR and RWSAR leave at the same time. The FWSAR gets overhead, locates the victim and drops aid (including SAR Techs if needed). The FWSAR will stay overhead to provide Top Cover till the RWSAR is there to pick them up.
Nah. You'll get pilots who aren't experienced flying in rough conditions adding to the victim count. And that's if those optics are maintained properly. Which almost assuredly won't happen given the cost of doing so.
At least the CASARA guys coordinate with the CAF, CCG, and ATC. I wouldn't trust people even less organized that.
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Mate, I'm so old that my first flight in the military (also first flight ever) was on a Yukon cross country shuttle. Add in Cosmos and the 707 shuttle. Had a short flight in a DC-3 out of Winnipeg once - an engine quit just after takeoff so quick turn around to land. Buffalos and Hercs. Once in a Tracker and once in the backseat of an F-5 on my FAC course. For helicopters the Kiowa, Huey and Voyageurs - a lot in the latter two.
Lot of air time for a mud gunner.
Edit - I actually have to correct that. My first and second flights ever were as a reservist in the back of a Herc. The Yukon was my first flight in the RegF and therefore my third flight.
Maxman1
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