The French armed forces can only fly a third of their helicopter fleets, such is the poor state of service and support for military rotorcraft, according to a French Senate study, reports Defense News.
“Only one in every three helicopters is able to take off today,” Senator Dominique de Legge said July 12th in a statement on his report for the Senate Finance Committee.
Last year, 300 helicopters of the total fleet of 467 were “immobilized,” parked either with a service or a company, he said.
There was a “worrying” lack of availability despite an increase of more than 56 percent in spending on helicopter service, rising to 645 million euros (U.S. $755 million) in 2017 from 412 million euros in 2009, he said. That marked an annual increase of almost 5.8 percent and accounted for 1.5 percent of the defence budget.
That lack of availability was due to a host of reasons, including a complex organization for service, 12 types of helicopter spanning three generations and overly strict and unsuitable rules of airworthiness, the report said. There was also a high rate of use in overseas deployment and weakness in the supply chain.
Those chronic problems “prevented the conduct of certain missions, particularly in France,” while working in tough conditions led to exhaustion of service personnel, de Legge said. There was also a lack of training, which weakened young maintenance crews, he added.