Royal Navy Fleet Amphibious Flagship HMS Bulwark has waved farewell to a long-serving military helicopter – the ‘Junglie’ Sea King Mark 4 for the very last time. The final landing onto the flight deck at sea took place off the SW coast 36 years after a ‘Junglie’ Sea King landed on her namesake Commando Carrier for the very first time. The Sea King Mark 4 – wearing its … [Read more...]
Diver rescued by Royal Navy
A combined rescue operation between the Coastguard, RNLI and Royal Navy has helped recover a missing diver off the Cornish coast. The diver became separated from his buddy after diving a wreck several miles off the Lizard Peninsula. A mayday call was sent by their dive boat at around 2:30pm on Tuesday, 1 September. This sparked a major rescue operation with the Coastguard … [Read more...]
Royal Marines, RAF and NHS In Rescue Partnership
Search and rescue (SAR) helicopters bound for Derriford hospital have landed at Bickleigh Barracks, in Plymouth, the home of 42 Commando Royal Marines, for the first time. The Plymouth based Royal Marines offered their football pitch as a landing site after the hospital lost the use of their previous site at the nearby University of St Mark & St John. An RAF Rescue Sea … [Read more...]
Photgrapher PO Mez Merrill has won the Navy’s Peregrine Trophy
A Royal Navy sailor based in Somerset who took a series of stunning images of the Commando Helicopter Force on exercises in Norway and Jordan has won the Navy’s Peregrine Trophy photographic competition. Petty Officer Mez Merrill, 43, based at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, took photographs of the Sea King helicopters and their personnel in snowy conditions while on a … [Read more...]
Joint helicopter operations on Cougar 13
Army Apache helicopters have joined Navy Sea King, Merlin and Lynx helicopters onboard HMS Illustrious for two weeks in the Gulf as part of the ongoing Cougar 13 deployment. The Apache helicopters from 656 Squadron 4 Regiment Army Air Corps joined Illustrious in the waters off the United Arab Emirates as she took part in Exercise Sea Khanjar before then returning to the UK. … [Read more...]
845 Naval Air Squadron on Exercise Pashtun Commando
Commando fliers spend six weeks training in punishing desert conditions. Nearly two years after their last experience of operating in desert conditions, 845 Naval Air Squadron decamped from their base at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset to Aqaba in southern Jordan for Exercise Pashtun Commando. The squadron – which spent four years in Afghanistan with its sister Commando … [Read more...]
The Eyes of the Fleet return home.
After more than 15 months in Afghanistan, 854 Naval Air Squadron (854 NAS) returns home to Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, near Helston, Cornwall in early March. Providing a key part of the surveillance effort in support of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, 854 NAS and its Sea King Airborne Surveillance and Control helicopters (SKASaCs) has … [Read more...]
Sea King squeezes through Museum’s Doors
With help from the Ministry of Defence, the Maritime Museum in Falmouth today installed its biggest object to date as part of its forthcoming Search & Rescue exhibition - a 6 tonne Sea King helicopter. The helicopter which is 70ft long and 16ft high had just 1½ inches of clearance through the Museum’s doors. The helicopter is painted the aircraft in the combined livery of … [Read more...]