£1400 per troop per day

Poll: £1400 per troop per day

Total Members Polled: 65

Yes: 26%
No: 74%
Author
Discussion

Silent1

Original Poster:

19,762 posts

265 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Is the cost of the UK being in Afghanistan according to figures brown produced during PMQs this week.
Do you think it's worth it?

JakeS

2,270 posts

215 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Some of the troops deserve all of it to be honest. What do they earn a day? £50 on a good day. Ross Kemp said some of them are on less that £3 an hour. I wonder where the rest of the money goes?

Silent1

Original Poster:

19,762 posts

265 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Just to make clear I'm not asking if the armed forces deserve it but if the cost of deployment is worth it.

Cara van Man

29,977 posts

281 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
JakeS said:
Some of the troops deserve all of it to be honest. What do they earn a day? £50 on a good day. Ross Kemp said some of them are on less that £3 an hour. I wonder where the rest of the money goes?
eerrrrrrrrr?

Food, equipment, logistics, accomodation, weapons?

Funnily enough, all these things cost money.

Rawwr

22,722 posts

264 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
JakeS said:
I wonder where the rest of the money goes?
Really?

ferkle

1,634 posts

243 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Yup. It adds up quick.

Landys at 10mpg on ok roads, down to 7 or less on the rough stuff
Vector APC 4-8mpg
Viking BVS10 less than that.
You get the idea on the vehicles.

5.56mm nato ammo basic lead - 56p per round - in 30 round stanag magazines (and lets be fair, with a 5.56 you don't really want to get stingy with them in a fire fight) so call it 5-10 mags a day, thats 150 - 300 rounds or about £80-160. Start using the stuff that gets some penetration and the cost goes up.

Grenades are about £90 for a frag

And if a battle group needs to use something like, say a Javelin (at £55k a go) even shared between 10 is pretty pricey.

Oh and if they pull out the H&K 40mm grenade machine gun at 340GPM (thats grenades per minute biggrin) at full firing rate is in the order of £3000 per minute on a truck that is doing 4mpg.....



remedy

2,293 posts

221 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Christ ferkle, that really puts it into perspective. I'd never contemplated all those cumulative costs.

ferkle

1,634 posts

243 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
its always the little things that add up.

anonymous-user

84 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
for every 2 soldiers theres 1 MOD civil servant to pay for too. oh and 300m gbp MOD civilian bonus pool. not forgetting 200 MOD PR and Media consultants who average brigadier salaries. the list of civilian MOD inefficiencies makes the NHS look like mckinsey.

to answer the original question. no. how do you win a 'war' with no objective? give the army a real job to do and they will do it or die trying. IMO it isn't their job to drag a war ravaged country out of the stone age. (securing iraqi oil supplies for uk/us firms is a different matter and might very well be worth it)



Edited by fbrs on Friday 9th April 19:06

Jasandjules

72,607 posts

259 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Is it worth it? Well, I guess we would need to know how much we are getting in return through the oil that we are protecting....

Dan_1981

18,101 posts

229 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
ferkle said:


Oh and if they pull out the H&K 40mm grenade machine gun at 340GPM (thats grenades per minute biggrin) at full firing rate is in the order of £3000 per minute on a truck that is doing 4mpg.....
This one sounds interesting.....

Mr Dave

3,233 posts

225 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
You dont even want to think about the cost of flying a helicopter for an hour, especially out there in hot and high conditions with all that sand taking its toll on wear.

I remember being told that about 5 or 6 years ago it costs about 18k an hour to fly a Puma in Northern Ireland.

Is it worth it?

Well if some Islamic nutter decides to go to Afghanistan and fight our boys and girls out there and in doing so doesnt blow up a school in Chelmsford or somewhere, then yes I say its worth it. For a lot of Afghanis it is worth it as well.

Oil isnt a reason we are there,in my opinion, and probably not much of a reason why we were in Iraq, although with the middle east everything has to do with oil in some way.

In the Falklands in '82, Rapier missiles were referred to as bungalows as thats how much they cost.

ferkle

1,634 posts

243 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Without getting into the argument about whether it is 'worth it' and just the simple costs of conflict.

Mr Dave said:
You dont even want to think about the cost of flying a helicopter for an hour, especially out there in hot and high conditions with all that sand taking its toll on wear.

I remember being told that about 5 or 6 years ago it costs about 18k an hour to fly a Puma in Northern Ireland.

In the Falklands in '82, Rapier missiles were referred to as bungalows as thats how much they cost.
Hahaha.... you should see the pricelist for flying a Typhoon or (if you are a 'merkin) a Raptor, even lesser planes. And that's before you have fired a single round or dropped any kind of ordnance...

That would be £85000 per hour of just flying a Typhoon.

Drop a Storm Shadow missile? Start singing to the tune of £697000 (six hundred and ninety seven thousand)

AGM-88HARM air to surface missiles are £206k each

The rounds for the Mauser 27mm cannon? £31.15 each. (A typhoon carries 150 rounds)

So a sortie taking 3 hours (max combat range) firing and spending all weapons?

£255k flying
£1.4m for 2 storm shadows
£2.06m for 10 AGM Air to Grounds
£4762 in 27mm rounds

an RAF pilot's actual wage isn't worth talking about for the 3 hour time period (3 maybe 4 27mm shells worth)

but adding that up I get

£3,719,762

or £1,239,920 per hour! (For someone earning £33k a year!)




Silent1

Original Poster:

19,762 posts

265 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
ferkle said:
Without getting into the argument about whether it is 'worth it' and just the simple costs of conflict.

Mr Dave said:
You dont even want to think about the cost of flying a helicopter for an hour, especially out there in hot and high conditions with all that sand taking its toll on wear.

I remember being told that about 5 or 6 years ago it costs about 18k an hour to fly a Puma in Northern Ireland.

In the Falklands in '82, Rapier missiles were referred to as bungalows as thats how much they cost.
Hahaha.... you should see the pricelist for flying a Typhoon or (if you are a 'merkin) a Raptor, even lesser planes. And that's before you have fired a single round or dropped any kind of ordnance...

That would be £85000 per hour of just flying a Typhoon.

Drop a Storm Shadow missile? Start singing to the tune of £697000 (six hundred and ninety seven thousand)

AGM-88HARM air to surface missiles are £206k each

The rounds for the Mauser 27mm cannon? £31.15 each. (A typhoon carries 150 rounds)

So a sortie taking 3 hours (max combat range) firing and spending all weapons?
£255k flying
£1.4m for 2 storm shadows
£2.06m for 10 AGM Air to Grounds
£4762 in 27mm rounds

an RAF pilot's actual wage isn't worth talking about for the 3 hour time period (3 maybe 4 27mm shells worth)

but adding that up I get
£3,719,762

or £1,239,920 per hour! (For someone earning £33k a year!)
where are you getting these stats from?
I don't suppose you know the cost of a c-5 per hour?

WhoseGeneration

4,090 posts

237 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Silent1 said:
Is the cost of the UK being in Afghanistan according to figures brown produced during PMQs this week.
Do you think it's worth it?
I presume you mean per trooper?
Then, I also presume that would be the cost of providing all the infrastructure needed to support one in the frontline.
The figure, it seems to me, would be entirely realistic.
"Worth it"?
Now we enter the realm of purpose, do we not?
Whose purpose and to what end?
Can anyone tell me those?

5unny

4,395 posts

212 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
The cost is unfortunate but it is a fraction of the cost we would suffer should a 9/11 or even another 7/7 occur on British soil.

The lost tourism, the extra security, the shock to the financial markets would run into the billions.

The majority of the foiled terror attacks in this country have had its roots in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Having a presence in this region saves countless lives at home.

WhoseGeneration

4,090 posts

237 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
5unny said:
The cost is unfortunate but it is a fraction of the cost we would suffer should a 9/11 or even another 7/7 occur on British soil.

The lost tourism, the extra security, the shock to the financial markets would run into the billions.

The majority of the foiled terror attacks in this country have had its roots in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Having a presence in this region saves countless lives at home.
So, our presence and influence in Pakistan is?
Sorry, I doubt the border regions could ever be controlled, without a massive military intervention meaning perpetual martial law.
Look to home and NI, only "resolved", for the time being, by negoiation with the "enemy".
Then, who provides the munitions to those against "us" in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

285 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Silent1 said:
ferkle said:
Without getting into the argument about whether it is 'worth it' and just the simple costs of conflict.

Mr Dave said:
You dont even want to think about the cost of flying a helicopter for an hour, especially out there in hot and high conditions with all that sand taking its toll on wear.

I remember being told that about 5 or 6 years ago it costs about 18k an hour to fly a Puma in Northern Ireland.

In the Falklands in '82, Rapier missiles were referred to as bungalows as thats how much they cost.
Hahaha.... you should see the pricelist for flying a Typhoon or (if you are a 'merkin) a Raptor, even lesser planes. And that's before you have fired a single round or dropped any kind of ordnance...

That would be £85000 per hour of just flying a Typhoon.

Drop a Storm Shadow missile? Start singing to the tune of £697000 (six hundred and ninety seven thousand)

AGM-88HARM air to surface missiles are £206k each

The rounds for the Mauser 27mm cannon? £31.15 each. (A typhoon carries 150 rounds)

So a sortie taking 3 hours (max combat range) firing and spending all weapons?
£255k flying
£1.4m for 2 storm shadows
£2.06m for 10 AGM Air to Grounds
£4762 in 27mm rounds

an RAF pilot's actual wage isn't worth talking about for the 3 hour time period (3 maybe 4 27mm shells worth)

but adding that up I get
£3,719,762

or £1,239,920 per hour! (For someone earning £33k a year!)
where are you getting these stats from?
I don't suppose you know the cost of a c-5 per hour?
True....

Even more expensive now they've got all weather capability...


5unny

4,395 posts

212 months

Saturday 10th April 2010
quotequote all

There is a massive CIA and MI6 presence in Pakistan. Their intelligence agency the ISI regularly kidnap suspects and hand them over to us.

Will the Afghan-Pak border region ever be stable? Of course not, but if it's a choice between instability there or over here then I know which one I'd choose.

One could argue we would never have been a target in the first place had we not gone into Afghanistan and Iraq in the first place but the past is the past and we are targets so doing nothing is not an option.

WhoseGeneration said:
5unny said:
The cost is unfortunate but it is a fraction of the cost we would suffer should a 9/11 or even another 7/7 occur on British soil.

The lost tourism, the extra security, the shock to the financial markets would run into the billions.

The majority of the foiled terror attacks in this country have had its roots in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Having a presence in this region saves countless lives at home.
So, our presence and influence in Pakistan is?
Sorry, I doubt the border regions could ever be controlled, without a massive military intervention meaning perpetual martial law.
Look to home and NI, only "resolved", for the time being, by negoiation with the "enemy".
Then, who provides the munitions to those against "us" in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Hugo a Gogo

23,437 posts

263 months

Saturday 10th April 2010
quotequote all
5unny said:
The cost is unfortunate but it is a fraction of the cost we would suffer should a 9/11 or even another 7/7 occur on British soil.
not sure what the link is there

7/7 was well after the war/invasion/whatever you want to call it in Afghanistan, and was committed by few lads who probably couldn't find Helmand on a map

Perhaps the Taliban were helping terrorist bombers? Can't wait for the invasions of Saudi, Yemen, Somalia and god knows where else then