Faults and breakdowns keep the Defence's Challenger aircraft on the ground for long periods

[Saithan]

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The defence's aging Challenger aircraft are plagued by errors and breakdowns, which periodically keep them on the ground and prevent them from patrolling over Greenland to a sufficient extent, writes DR today. Several defense rapporteurs want the problem solved as soon as possible and in the long term buy completely new aircraft.​

The defence's materiel challenges have now also manifested themselves in the fleet of Challenger aircraft, where they go beyond the patrolling of Greenlandic airspace. This appears from a response from Acting Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen (V) to the Danish Parliament's Defense Committee, writes DR today .

With the Arctic agreement from December 2016, the Danish Parliament decided that the presence of a Challenger aircraft in Greenland should be changed from 120 days a year to a year-round presence. In practice, however, compliance with the objective is so-so, shows the response to the Defense Committee . In it, the Defense Command states that from 1 August 2022 to 23 June 2023, the Challenger aircraft has been available for a total of 240 days based primarily in Kangerlussuaq, but that the aircraft has also periodically performed tasks from Keflavik in Iceland and Flyvestation Aalborg, respectively. For a total of almost three months, however, it has been parked on the ground:

"During the period, the Challenger aircraft has been unavailable for 87 days due to increased need for maintenance and technical improvements. Against the background of the increased need for maintenance of the Defense Force's Challenger aircraft, the Challenger aircraft is generally sought to be available in Kangerlussuaq five days a week, with crew changes, airframe changes, etc. in between. The operational needs, maintenance needs on the planes, weather conditions and other factors can lead to changes in the availability of the Challenger plane in Kangerlussuaq.'

LA and the government: Need for brand new planes​

The planes' long periods on the ground do not bother the Greenlandic member of parliament Aaja Chemnitz (IA), who in June asked the Minister of Defense the question about the planes' presence at Station Kangerlussaq:

"It is a huge blunder that they have not prioritized being more present in the Arctic in relation to ensuring that the monitoring lives up to the political objectives," says Aaja Chemnitz to DR.

The Liberal Alliance and Radikale Venstre also want to rectify the matter and ensure a more stable presence in the air over Greenland, say the parties' defense spokespersons, Carsten Bach (LA) and Christian Friis Bach (RV), to the same media.

"It is highly critical that we cannot solve that task, both because it is about civil preparedness in Greenland, but also about military and security monitoring of the waters around Greenland, where the Russians may have activity that we have no knowledge of," says Carsten Bach, who would like to see Denmark invest in completely new aircraft in the long term.

That plan is supported by the acting Minister of Defence, who himself is annoyed by the problems with the Challenger planes:

"Our Challenger aircraft are not quite young either. Therefore, we must also look at potentially acquiring new aircraft in order to be able to carry out the surveillance task, which is of crucial importance for the Commonwealth of Nations. Therefore, it is also not sustainable that we are not able to deliver the monitoring we have agreed on,' says Troels Lund Poulsen.

Source: https://olfi.dk/2023/07/25/fejl-og-...ts-challenger-fly-paa-jorden-i-kangerlussuaq/

Danes, likely the only people on the planet who'll start a debate on defending ourselves if/when we get invaded....