omething special
40 years
Not bad for a craft that engineer has nothing but praise to land safely without that. But asking for more.” off a magazine’s worth of AK47 five bladed tail rotor instead
celebrates its fortieth year in the for the recent changes that have it’s a task that is euphemistically It should be no surprise that the and then disappear back into his of a six, developed night
Navy’s service this year. brought the Sea King up to speed described as ‘tricky’... Commandos place such a heavy house.” vision goggles (shortened to
The Sea King first broached the and more than capable for the hot “A more modern aircraft tasking on the helicopters of the Lt Cdr Lynch added with rather DNVG) – basically a head-
dark blue as an anti-submarine and high demands of the fierce wouldn’t have survived that,” said CHF. British understatement: “So they up display inside the pilot’s
warfare helicopter at 700S NAS in Afghan country. Cdr Donnelly. Once a Commando in his desert are not pleasant places in the goggles, the defensive aid
August 1969. “The fact is it always keeps
“I describe the Sea King
fatigues is clad in his body armour slightest.” suite to deter missiles or
A decade earlier Sikorsky flew going, if a Sea Harrier gets an
as agricultural, but that’s a
with his helmet, he’s already These dangers are a fact of life to decoy them away and
the first prototype in March 1959, engine fault it falls out of the sky.
good thing.
carrying 28lb. for all the Forces operating out the recent acquisition of a
while the first commando version “The Sea King pilots are pretty Add to that a weapon, a there. And for the Sea King crews port-door gunner with a
would not appear with 846 NAS confident that it will always fly,
“Because they are robust, and
magazine, a radio, a waterbottle, it’s part of everyday life. GPMG.
until December 1979. one recently took nine or ten
they do survive a lot of things
plus all the other ancillaries that “The flying out there is very The Flight Commander, Sea King
But it would be a mistake to rounds, but kept flying.”
that a modern aircraft couldn’t
come with a patrol out in those tactical. Basically if you’re low a pilot whose customary
equate the Sea King’s venerability Inside the CHF hangar at RNAS
survive.
extremes of heat and risk and he is level and flying over a populated seat is on the left of the
with vulnerability. Yeovilton a team from the Mobile
“A pilot is fairly confident that
carrying 70-80lb of equipment. area, then someone is likely to cockpit, states: “We like the
Cdr Jim Donnelly, Senior Air Support Unit (MASU) are
no matter how much damage they
Most of the operations that the have a pop at you. port door gun.
Aircraft Engineer with CHF, repairing the wounds of conflict of
take they will still keep flying.”
Royal Marines have been carrying “So you avoid flying low “Previously the only
stressed: “It was an old workhorse the bullet-scarred Sea King.
And its pilots are confident in
out during their stint in the dry level over populated areas. But armament that was outside
– an old pickup truck where you Inside the helicopter’s belly a
this hard-working long-proven
hills of Aghanistan have been on obviously to get into a landing site the port side of the aircraft
could chuck everything in the panel has been removed from the
rotorcraft.
foot. you have to fly low-level.” was my Browning 9mm
back and fly around. roof, showing two twisted ropes of
Perhaps it doesn’t have the
Demanding a high resupply The demand on the Sea pistol – which is not much
“That was true. But now it’s a silver wire that run between cab
agility of the Lynx, the ferocity of
rate, as rations, water and weapon King crews and airframes is use, but it’s better than
hugely different beast.” and rear rotor.
the Apache, the lift of the Chinook
resources are kept topped up by the unremitting. nothing.”
The Sea King has not stood It’s a sight reminiscent of a
but the Sea King does have the
Sea Kings and other helicopters of “We just don’t really have the Both aircrew and air
still during its 40 years with the light-hearted Loony Toons cartoon
can-do go-anywhere attitude of
the Joint Helicopter Command. helicopters back here because engineers agree about the
Royal Navy – the airborne early but this is deadly serious – one
the Commando Helicopter Force.
“And then routine tasking, they’re being modified to go out, one unavoidable enemy out
warning baggers of Culdrose of the ropes is held together by a
Senior Flight Commander Lt
which is the meat and veg of it being cleaned up after they’ve there – dust.
will also attest to that – and the single thread of wire, the rest are
Cdr Rory Lynch said: “Nobody
really, packs and stores all around come back, and so on. Cdr Donnelly said: “The
splayed, broken and snapped.
drives out there by choice. You
the place, all around the forward “It’s quite busy out there. I only other big challenge in
One bullet came through the
don’t drive to get from A to B.
operating bases, zigzagging around got more than half of my annual theatre is the dust.
skin of the Sea King, ricocheted
You drive to patrol, or if you want
the bases.” sortie rate flying out there in just “It sticks to everything
inside and almost entirely
to dominate an area, but you
The pilot has a vivid way of three months. And that’s pretty that has grease on – the
000
shredded one of the crucial links
certainly don’t drive for any other
describing the Forward Operating standard. whole rotorhead is covered
that allow the pilot to control the
reason.
Bases, or FOBs, that are scattered “It’s pretty busy. But that’s what in grease. An awful lot of man-
tail rotor.
“So helicopters really are the
through the Afghan territory. most air crew like.” hours is spent cleaning up.”
only way to shift people around.”
oyal Marines come
Apparently it is still possible “The FOBs are very little Of course the Sea King, this Photos of Afghanistan show the
This means of course a massive
different from a Wild West fort child of the Cold War era, a helicopters disappearing into the
burden of work for the helicopters
shore by Sea King
that you’d see in a John Wayne maritime helicopter bought with ochre clouds of swirling dust but
out there, and the men and women
movie. an eye to the cold flanks of Russian can’t convey the lingering reality
who fly them, fly in them, and
“The only difference is that aggression into Europe, required a of it.
Sierra Leone
keep them flying.
they’re made with that ‘HESCO few changes before entering a new “If it’s a still day that cloud of
“So it’s very busy and there will
bastion’ – baskets filled full of realm. dust will probably be a cube of
never be enough helicopters.”
sand and rocks – instead of wood, “When we first went into Iraq 300 or 400m across and 500 or
Lt Cdr Lynch sighs: “But then
and instead of having arrows stuck we got new engines. And it’s 600ft high that will just hang in
there never has been really, in any
in the big doors it has rocket- developed further from there. the air,” said Lt Cdr Lynch.
conflict. Commandos are always
propelled grenades stuck in the “It’s certainly performing better “So if you’re the number two
big doors. with the new kit than it would aircraft to land the dust just isn’t
“They’re almost invariably in a have been otherwise. It wouldn’t clearing out the way.”
town. So it’s a fort in the middle have been particularly capable. “It does erode the front of the
of a town, and the guy can be in But nor would all the others.” blades very quickly because we’re
his compound 300m away and The officer stresses that the Sea in and out of it so much.
just climb onto his roof and loose King is only one of the British “There are incidents because
helicopter fleet that has had to be you lose visibility because you’re
transformed to face the Afghan in the dust cloud. But that’s just
storms – “Everybody gets modded what happens.”
up. You have to keep up with Yes, there are tougher, quicker,
the conditions and the theatre of smarter, nimbler aircraft out there.
operations.” And most estimates give the Sea
The modifications that earn the King perhaps another decade in
+ symbol for the jungly HC4s the Navy’s service.
include the new Carson blades, a But for the men and women
2003
of CHF the Sea King’s birthday
seems of little relevance.
It is of a generation of siblings
that still flourish in Britain’s
Night assault on the
Joint Helicopter Command – the
Chinook, Lynx and Puma; and
merits little note for its age among
Al Faw peninsula
this crowd.
Does it do the job? Yes. Do
the men and women of 845 and
846 NAS trust it to do the job?
patrol
Yes. Do the troops on the ground
who rely on it trust it to do its
job? Yes.
town
Long live the long-lived King.
■ MORE on the Sea King’s 40
year history with the Royal Navy
will be appearing later in the
year.
2009
dinner at Wittering on July 23
(black tie, no partners, price £40) A Naval Strike Wing
or families day at Cottesmore on
July 24 (free) should visit www.
homeoftheharrier.com
Harrier over Afghanistan
020-021_NN_May copy.indd 2 23/4/09 10:22:28
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