14 NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2011


side of the ship’s Lynx. It’s yet another drill for the Fighting 99 as she attempts to bring peace and security to the often hostile waters of the Somali Basin. This is Cornwall’s second pirate-chasing deployment in 12 months (it will be her last, too, as all the 22s are to go under last autumn’s defence review).


A


With fewer vessels and, it seems, barely a lessening of commitments around the globe, the destroyer and frigate fl eet is being pushed harder than ever as the gap between deployments shortens.


They’re pushing the ships hard is a not uncommon remark in the Navy News offices. We rather forget that they’re pushing the ship’s flights hard too. Luckily, it’s something the flight’s parent unit, 815 Naval Air Squadron, doesn’t forget. Far from it. It’s changing the way it does its business to keep up with the tempo of the destroyers and frigates which rely on its helicopters. Not too long ago, ships could go up to 18 months between deployments; these days they can be sent away after fewer than six months back home in Portsmouth or Devonport. If they’re cutting down on the turnaround time between deployments, so too their fl ights. “If that’s what’s needed, we will meet it,” says


815’s ops offi cer Lt Cdr Anthony Johnson. “It’s all about the front line.” The Yeovilton-based Lynx unit proclaims itself to be the largest helicopter squadron in the world (300 or so technicians and maintainers, four dozen aircrew, a good two dozen aircraft). Each ship’s flight demands one Lynx and a team of ten men and women: two aircrew, one aircraft controller, seven engineers/technicians. So on paper meeting its core tasks should be straightforward, given 815’s size. The squadron is expected to uphold at least half a dozen standing commitments, providing fl ights for:


BOUT to rapid rope on to the deck of HMS Cornwall, a Royal Marine Commando casts a line out of the


Telic duties in the Gulf; Calash (maritime security in the Indian Ocean); NATO Maritime Group 2 (increasingly deployed east of Suez on counter-piracy work); Atlantic Patrol North; Atlantic Patrol South.


In addition to ship’s fl ights, 815’s expected to support operations in home waters:


there are always two Lynx ready to scramble on counter- terrorism duties; one Lynx is always available should the Fleet Ready Escort – the on-call destroyer or frigate – need to put to sea.


A snapshot of late 2010 gives an idea of just how many 815 men and women (plus Lynx) are out there:


Telic: Somerset and Cumberland; Calash: Cornwall; NATO: Montrose;


So that should account for, say, eight fl ights. Er, no.


Britain’s


by training


taking the place of Apache gunships (very much in demand in Helmand...) during pre-deployment exercises for air and ground units about to head to theatre.


“At any one time there are about a dozen flights away – perhaps two thirds of the squadron is committed,” says Lt Cdr Johnson. “We work the aircraft hard, we work the people


hard. We don’t say ‘no’. We can always manage – it’s better to show that you are busy.”


CURRENTLY in the regeneration phase is 207 this summer.


Flight, preparing to join the Fortress of the Sea


HMS Edinburgh’s likely to be a little rusty when it comes to aerial operations – she’s been out of action for months courtesy of a a £17.5m refit. But 207 doesn’t simply arrive on board the day the destroyer heads out of Portsmouth on deployment. The Flight’s been talking to – and working with


APT (North): Manchester; APT (South): Portland (returning); Gloucester (outward bound). One Lynx was on the back of HMS Daring on her mini- deployment to the USA; 212 Flight – traditionally attached to HMS Endurance – went with HMS Ocean to South America.


requires not one but three fl ights each: one actually deployed, one at home in the UK recovering from its exertions, a third in preparation for deploying with a ship.


exercise or work-up round the UK – Joint Warrior, Operational Sea Training.


And we’ve not mentioned other vessels on Nor does the 815 workload stop there. The As for those standing commitments, each one


– the Type 42 since the end of 2010. “You build up strong ties with your ship,” says Lt Ben Dando, fl ight observer. “You become a well-oiled machine.”


before the Fleet Air Arm moves on to the next- generation Lynx, Wildcat, from 2015 (although 700W get to ‘play’ with it in 12 months’ time...). Progress with technology means that Wildcat will be available for roughly 30 per cent longer than the current breed of Lynx. Right now, however, the Mk8 remains a very potent bit of kit. “You have gone from Swordfi sh-esque technology, putting plots on acetates, working by torchlight, to hi-tech,” says Cdr Paul ‘Butch’ Bowers, 815’s out-going CO.


His flight is among the last to convert from the venerable Mk3 Lynx (which can’t go east of Suez – it doen’t have the latest communications equipment or defence aid suite) to the Mk8 (in very simplistic terms it’s the one with all the gubbins on the nose such as the Gucci camera kit). The Mk8 is the fi nal variant of the helicopter


squadron has offered to support the UK mission in Afghanistan – the overriding task for all Armed Forces at present – forward air controllers and


And he knows a thing or two about Lynx. He’s been flying them for 20 years.


“In a Mk3 you could manage six plots, in a Mk8 you can plot everything from Portland to the Isle of Wight. “Lynx crews are as busy as they have ever been,


it’s just that with the Mk 8, the system does it a lot more quickly.”


In fact, it can do much more than it did three or four years ago when there was a real mish- mash of variants of Lynx: older Mk3s, newer Mk8s some with night-vision kit, some without. “There was a lot of juggling different aircraft,” says Cdr Bowers.


These days 815 is much more homogenous. And that’s not just good for the squadron and good for the Fleet, it also means the turn-around time for flights can be reduced dramatically. Although a deployment typically lasts six months, the whole training and work-up package for the fl ight typically takes 15 months. The 18-week ‘regeneration’ package – which includes top-up training, courses, pre-deployment training (previously known as OPTAG) – has now been pared down to fi ve to nine weeks, thanks in part to the demise of Mk3s and hence no requirement for conversion any more. There’s a change too in platforms. Having worked with 22s and 42s since the 1970s, both of these will soon be gone and the maritime Lynx will operate almost exclusively from the back of Type 23s and 45s – although really, they’re not overly bothered what the vessel is. “There are plus points and minus points to every type of ship – but really it’s the ship’s company who make it,” said senior maintenance rating CPO Pete Collins.


RFA...” “That said, no-one is going to turn down an


don’t enjoy life on a ‘small’ ship,” says CPO Si Barson, senior maintenance rating with the flight on HMS Chatham’s most recent deployment. “But 95 per cent of the guys enjoy it – you tend to see the same faces coming around.” And why not? For, as Cdr Bowers tells each flight before they embark on deployment: “You are so lucky, you have the best job.”


En suite cabins. Funny that... “There are some people on the squadron who


picture: la(phot) dave jenkins, frpu east


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