Army Has Lost 130 Helicopters In Wars, Industry Not Replacing Them Fast Enough, General Says

[rainbow4321]

http://kotv.com/news/national/story/?id=123326

The Army has lost 130 helicopters in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about a third to shoot-downs, its aviation director said Friday. He complained that industry is not replacing them fast enough. ``While the military may be on a war footing, our nation's industry is not on a war footing,'' said Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt.

He said it takes 24 months to get replacement aircraft built and delivered and that replacements for the early losses are just now arriving.

``The U.S. is not at war, the military is at war,'' he told a group of Pentagon reporters, also complaining about the timing of how money flows from the government to pay for the purchases. ``Industry, you have got to get to the point of where you're producing ... faster.''

Mundt did not have a further breakdown of the losses of aircraft except to say that in addition to shoot-downs, helicopters fall prey to dirt, dust and the rough terrain and conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[shadowknows69]

1. These are the numbers you don't see much in the press.

did anyone else think we'd lost that many birds? I've talked to guys coming back from Afghanistan that say the skies are particularly dangerous there. One told me about a whole Chinook that was taken out near a mountain stronghold.

[rodeodance]

7. bet the National Guard will never see their eqipment again

[lpbk2713]

14. Put it into a greater perspective.

It says the *Army* has lost that many. Certainly the other services, particularly the USMC, have lost quite a few as well.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Solution: Get the helicopters out of other people's countries.

[Sherman A1]

3. Precisely

The answer!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. partial answer

get our choppers AND all our troops out of other countries. Why do we have 270 bases, not counting IraqNam or Afghanistan?

[Solo_in_MD]

4. Industry would be glad to ramp up, but the military can not afford the price

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Now that IS funny.

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spend...

In Context: U.S. Military Spending Versus Rest of the World

While FY 2008 budget requests for US military spending are known, for most other countries, the most recent data is from 2005 (at time of writing). Using US spending at that time, we can compare US military spending with the rest of the world:

* The US military spending was almost two-fifths of the total.
* The US military spending was almost 7 times larger than the Chinese budget, the second largest spender.
* The US military budget was almost 29 times as large as the combined spending of the six “rogue” states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) who spent $14.65 billion.
* It was more than the combined spending of the next 14 nations.
* The United States and its close allies accounted for some two thirds to three-quarters of all military spending, depending on who you count as close allies (typically NATO countries, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and South Korea)
* The six potential “enemies,” Russia, and China together spent $139 billion, 30% of the U.S. military budget

[Solo_in_MD]

12. You need to update your figures and consider the fraction of GNP spent on Defense

Chinese in the last 3-4 months have announced massive defense spending plus ups. The numbers referenced in the link are not anywhere near sources considered authoratative such as Janes. The Western democracies have mostly open budgets, Russia, China do not.

[Selatius]

9. It's easy, just add another several billion to the defense budget.

When you're spending 600+ billion each year on national defense now, what's another 10 billion on top of that?

[Solo_in_MD]

10. Actually its not

The drive to count every penny and minimize costs ala WalMart infected DoD acquisition in the US a long ago. Suppliers up and down the chain are negoiated with to the penny based on a certain delivery schedule. Its a lot of work. To change it is more work and will incurr more costs, at least as it starts up.

[Selatius]

13. I was being sarcastic with the last comment

But if you were to extract anything from it, then that would be the message that it is still well within capability of the US government to ramp up production of spare parts and new helicopters. Of course, you need money first and foremost before anything is done.

[oblivious]

8. The Soviets lost 333 helicopters in the 10-year Afghanistan war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_aircraft_losses_in_Afghanistan

[gratuitous]

11. Well, are we gonna finish second to the Soviets?

I think not! U! S! A! U! S! A!