November 16th, 2003
A helicopter a day…
From 1966-1970, the U.S. averaged about 9,000 combat deaths a year… with 1966 and 1970 bookending those numbers @ 6,000 and 4,000 (roughly). How many more helicopters do we have to lose before we start approaching these numbers? What are “acceptable” casualty rates? 40 deaths a month? It would seem unlikely that 400 deaths a month would be acceptable, so the number must be somewhere between those two numbers… although I really find it unlikely that even 40 deaths a month, for even a couple of years, would be acceptable.
# deaths * days in year
1 365
2 730
3 1095
4 1460
5 1825
6 2190
7 2555
8 2920
9 3285
10 3650
11 4015
12 4380
13 4745
14 5110
15 5475
16 5840
17 6205
18 6570
19 6935
20 7300
21 7665
22 8030
23 8395
24 8760
25 9125
