NAVY NEWS, JULY 2010 beginnings The ship’s submarine hunting skills once
more came to the fore during a successful ship- controlled, air-delivered prosecution of a simulated submarine by a dummy torpedo launched from her Merlin.
All work and no play is not good for long term morale and balance was restored with the ship’s company taking time to enjoy the warm waters of the Eastern Seaboard for a ‘hands to bathe’.
We left RFA Fort George last month with (1) a rather tacky tiger-print RAS-ing flag courtesy of 814 Naval Air Squadron and (2) a depleted supply of crisps courtesy of a shortage aboard Sutherland. Well, the flag’s still there, as are the Flying
Tigers.
“Operating in the mid-Atlantic was a first for some and certainly concentrated the mind towards the end of a long mission in the black of night,” said Tigers’ CO Cdr Darran Goldsmith. Aside from hunting those pesky submarines, the Merlins have been conducting some rare – and enjoyable – air-to-submarine winching. Enjoyable that is unless you’re the one dangling on the end of the wire. Among those danglers was one Cdre Simon Ancona...
As for the crisps (aka potato chips on this side of the Pond), well they’ll take some depleting. The floating warehouse carries enough food to produce meals for 100,000 people... or 100,000 meals for one person. Also aboard is sufficient diesel to fill up 166,660 cars... or sail nearly three times around the equator (if that were humanly possible...).
Despite such vast supplies, the Auriga force is doing its best to drain Fort George. Sutherland, Ark and Liverpool are thirsty beasts, so too the USS Barry. And as for the food... “Ark, swelled by 143 hungry US Marines, required feeding and RFA Fort George was on hand to supply,” said her CO Capt Dale Worthington RFA. “Vegetables, frozen goods, soft drinks among other things – in many ways similar to a (very large) weekly shop. “The only difference was that of quantity. When was the last time you popped into a supermarket for ten tons of potatoes?”
Back on a potato-laden Ark... The USMC pilots – including one Lt Ralph
Wood RN on exchange with the Semper Fi guys – got their first taste of the ‘ski ramp’ which helps them skywards (it’s something US warships don’t possess).
They carried out attacks on Ark’s target (not as grandiose as the Canadian drones – just a towed affair) and defended the carrier against incoming attack.
In their first week aboard, the Americans managed 160 sorties (not quite the 70-a-day) and qualified 22 pilots for operations on a British flat-top.
“I’ve been massively impressed by the skill and capability of the US Marine Corps aviation personnel,” enthused Cdr ‘Rocky’ Salmon, Ark’s Commander Air. “They – and we – have achieved so much.”
Another relatively unusual sight on Ark’s flight
deck are two Mk3 Lynx of 212 Flight, 815 NAS. The Flight was attached to HMS Endurance... but with the Red Plum out of action following her near-sinking 18 months ago, the helicopters are being put to good use elsewhere. The Lynx are averaging about 50 hours a month on general duties – anything from force protection to ferrying sailors, supplies and mail around. It’s keeping the Flight “up to speed” as observer Lt Martin Ormshaw puts it and it also offers a little variety...
“The team in Ark Royal have been absolutely fantastic,” says pilot Lt Paul ‘Ellers’ Ellerton. “We are all really pleased to be operating from the flagship’s deck with US Marine Corps Harriers, Sea King and Merlin helicopters, in addition to the variety of visiting American aircraft.” And now for just a bit more variety...
Exit USMC stage left. Enter RAF 1(F) Squadron stage right. After 143 Americans had shuffled down Ark’s gangway, 116 RAF and RN personnel (like all elements of Joint Force Harrier it’s a mixiblob of Junior and Senior Service personnel) from the jump jet squadron shuffled on. Flight Deck Officer Lt Paul ‘Mo’ Morris and his team guided the six Harrier GR9s safely aboard. “Flying Control, way up in the island, ‘bring them in’ over the headset comms, but I make it my responsibility to personally welcome each pilot to the Ark Royal team,” he says. Which is jolly nice of him. The Cottesmore-based Harriers are aboard Ark for eight weeks for the crux of Auriga.
They sailed with the carrier initially for the US exercise area off Florida, Virginia and North Carolina (that would be quite a large exercise area, then – Ed) for the ‘safe to operate’ phase of their training. As the title suggests, the fliers qualify in landing and taking off from a warship punching through the high seas. Once that was done, there was time for a little ‘showing off’ (not our words, but those of task group commander Cdre Ancona). The RAF fliers laid on a show for 16 VIPs from the US Navy, Marine Corps and Department of Defense (the American equivalent of the MOD). They joined 814 Merlins and 212 Flight’s Lynx in the skies above the task group, while Cdre Ancona briefed the Americans on Britain’s carrier strike programme and the Merlin-Sonar 2087 sucker punch to submarines. “This was a great opportunity for us to demonstrate some of the capabilities which a British carrier strike group has – the Harrier GR9 and Merlin particularly,” said Ark’s CO Capt John Clink.
“Exercising off the American coast provides the perfect carrier gymnasium to enhance our skills.” As Navy News went to press, the group had left the gym and was heading for Canada. Halifax, Nova Scotia, to be precise. The British ships’ presence was requested at the Canadian International Fleet Review, celebrating 100 years of the Commonwealth Navy which grew out of its much older ‘mother’. We’ll have a report on that next month. ■ Auriga sporting action, page 46
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