As this would be a cross service budget this is what I would put forwardRepulse wrote: ↑10 Sep 2023, 08:32How much would you raise by selling 8 Wildcats? £200mn? What else would you cut or not do to pay for it?Tempest414 wrote: ↑09 Sep 2023, 15:35 As I said before make the NMH program 66 airframes split 20 to the RAF and 30 to the Army with 12 in a joint OCU and 4 held for deep maintenance next move 26 Wildcats to the Navy with 18 feed into service and 8 held for deep maintenance / upgrade with the remaining 8 sold all 3 services get what they needed
Just to add to this the NMH should be fitted with folding rotors to allow them to fit in navy hangars as needed
I think getting significant helicopter platforms, pilots and support capabilities is key for a balanced force and the nation’s objectives, so have put the MRSS budget on the table, but I tend to agree with @SW1 that it’s going to take alot of money and even this will not be enough.
first I think the 66 new NMH's would have a budget of 1.5 billion of which there is 1 billion already in the pot so to get to the rest I would start by selling the 8 Wildcats for 300 million I would then take from the navy 1 x MRSS = 200 million next I would look at the armies Boxer which has funding for 1000 Boxers and cut it to 800 giving 800 million of which 400 million would be pushed into the NMH program and 400 million would go on buying 400 more HMT
This would gain us 900 million on top of the 1 billion already in the pot making the new pot 1.9 billion as the aircrews in real terms we are adding 18 helicopters to active list so given the way services work we are looking at adding 6 more crews
So without going into it to deep this is what I would be looking at as a starter