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Thread: what's the air cargo capacity of the UK air force?
Multiple data points now show that road imports into the UK are significantly disrupted. Others say many EU hauliers will refuse to come to the UK come Jan. But what about the RAF? They can save us right?
No. /1
Multiple data points now show that road imports into the UK are significantly disrupted. Others say many EU hauliers will refuse to come to the UK come Jan. But what about the RAF? They can save us right?
No. /1
First you need to understand the carrying capacity of a HGV. The maximum permitted weight of a normal HGV is 44 tonnes (ignoring the exceptions when they move huge mining or electrical loads around with escorts). /2
Unladen HGV weights vary by several tonnes. Variables include the fuel tank size (some carry as much as 1000 litres), the fittings in the cab, the model of the truck and most importantly the type of trailer (refrigerated, curtain sider, box, etc). Let's assume 15.5 tonnes. /3
44 minus 15.5 leaves 28.5.
That means our HGV can haul 28.5 tonnes. So far so good. /4
That means our HGV can haul 28.5 tonnes. So far so good. /4
Onto the RAF. What cargo planes does it own? /5
It's not too easy to check so I'm going to cheat and assume Wikipedia is accurate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_United_Kingdom_military_aircraft says it's got 20 A400Ms, 9 Voyagers, 8 Beechcraft Shadow R1s, 8 C17As, 4 BAE146s, 14 C130Js. I'm ignoring the helicopters because Chinooks aren't going to save the UK /6
Picture time. First off the A400M. Capacity is 37 tonnes. Here's one from the German Air Force. /7
The Airbus Voyager everybody. Capacity: 45 tonnes. This one is owned by the Australian air force. It's in in air refuelling mode servicing a US F16. /8
We have some Beechcraft. They hold 1.7 tonnes. This is a picture of one of ours. They won't help much with emergency cargo transport. /9
C17As! Much more like it. They hold 77.5 tonnes. These three are USAF owned and on an emergency relief aid mission for New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. /10
BAE146s. 8.6 tonnes. Problem: 2 are in VIP configuration for ferrying Prince Andrew to golf tournaments (and sometimes other people too). That leaves 2 for cargo operations. /11
Finally the C130J, also known as the super Hercules (I'm not making that up). 19 tonnes carrying capacity. This one is French owned. I chose the picture because it has people for scale. /12
Next topic: are they all in the UK and are they all operational? No and no is the inevitable answer - some will be on operations, others down for servicing or repair - but let's pretend they are all available. So in summary what do we have? /13
20 x 37t
9 x 45t
8 x 1.7t
8 x 77.5t
2 x 8.6t
14 x 19t
Total is
740 + 405 + 13.6 + 620 + 17.2 + 266
Equals
2,061.8 tonnes. /14
9 x 45t
8 x 1.7t
8 x 77.5t
2 x 8.6t
14 x 19t
Total is
740 + 405 + 13.6 + 620 + 17.2 + 266
Equals
2,061.8 tonnes. /14
Back to my HGV. You may recall I said it could carry 28.5 tonnes. The whole of the RAF cargo carrying capacity is equal to 91.6 HGVs. /15
In comparison how many trucks enter the UK daily via Dover alone? The port says it did 2.6m in 2017 ( https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/09/record-number-of-lorries-using-dover-port-raises-fears-of-brexit-delays). Making a reasonable assumption that half of that came in and dividing it by 364, you get 3561 per day or 148 per hour. /16
We are ignoring any trucks that came in via other routes (the same article said 1.3m went in and out via the tunnel for example). /17
In summary, if in the near future you see an article in a newspaper (eg the express cough cough) saying the royal air force are flying in to save the day it'll be bollocks. Even if they threw everything they had at it it would barely make a dent. /18
Together the West struggled to feed Berlin during the 1948 airlift despite the maximum days tonnage topping out at 12,941 tonnes. The RAF has much less ability; it has no hope of keeping a country fed or supplied with life saving medication (or should we expect it to). /Fin.
Addendum for any other UK residents, if you want to stockpile it's not too late, see here for two links as to what to go and buy. https://twitter.com/Fwoggie/status/1336199711204761600?s=19
