Chinook fiasco leaves Britain short of helicopters in Iraq

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/britain_iraq_us

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LONDON (AFP) - A software blunder has left Britain short of Chinook helicopters in Iraq (news - web sites) and reliant on the United States to reach full battlefield capability, a British government spending watchdog said.

Eight of the Royal Air Force's Chinooks, worth 259 million pounds (394 million euros, 476 million dollars), were grounded because navigation software did not fit in the cockpits, said the National Audit Office (NAO) report.

Britain's helicopter fleet is "not fully equipped to undertake missions in certain operational conditions, including those recently experienced in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq," the report said.

The defence ministry accepted there was a "capability shortfall, particularly in the support helicopter area."

We haven't heard much from Basra in the last few days. Isn't it a Shi'a stronghold (and where British troops are based)?

Last I saw, yesterday perhaps, there were Shiaa fighters on top of a government building in Basra. I have not heard anything today.

fitting in a cockpit? Did they mean "hardware"?

Probably Carlyle Group subcontractors!

commonly known as the "shithook".

One of the most frightening war machines ever built. To the passengers, that is.

with a rotor on each end.

I put more time in on those things than I care to remember. In combat assaults they'd often send the first platoon in on Hueys and the rest of the company in Shithooks. There's nothing quite like the sound an AK bullet makes coming up through the floor of a Shithook.

... to commit their Chinooks to the possibility of being shot at.