On the last day of 2015, search-and-rescue (SAR) services in the United Kingdom became wholly civilian. For many, this marked the last time they would see the familiar bulk of a Sea King helicopter over Britain’s beaches or hills.
Some might know that the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force was operating the Mk4 Sea King until retiring the model at the end of March this year. What has passed virtually unnoticed is the fact that the Royal Navy will continue to operate one variant of the Sea King until at least 2018.
The Airborne Surveillance and Control (ASaC) Mk7 continues to fly not only in the U.K., but also from British warships deployed overseas. This unique aircraft — a product variously of gross oversight, dire need, lateral thought and bold engineering — has served in every conflict in which the U.K. has involved itself since the new millennium.
Yet many are completely oblivious to its existence. Now, as its cousins are retired, it will be expected to soldier on until its eventual replacement in the shape of the Merlin Crowsnest project.
This is not the first time that the Mk7 has faced retirement. In 2009, mere weeks before its scheduled withdrawal from service, crews at 849 Naval Air Squadron, based at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, were told not only that their aircraft would be spared from the scrapyard, but that they would be deploying to Afghanistan to support the intensifying ground war in Helmand.
After hasty modifications to provide some level of protection from Taliban surface-to-air missiles, two aircraft were airlifted out to Camp Bastion and the Sea King Mk7 Force deployed on Operation Herrick. They would not return until British troops left Helmand province in 2014.
In 2010, the aircraft was again under threat, this time from the Strategic Defence and Security Review that spelled the end of the British Aerospace Harrier GR7/GR9 and the eventual withdrawal from service of the U.K.’s last remaining aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious.
But by 2014, the tables had turned. As the drawdown of the SAR force took the spotlight, the Sea King ASaC (SKASaC) was extended with little fanfare until at least 2018 to prepare the way for the Royal Navy’s return to carrier aviation, and to retain vital airborne early warning (AEW) and information, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) expertise.
In preparation, at the end of 2014, the two frontline Naval Air Squadrons — 854 and 857 — were merged into 849. This squadron alone will continue to provide operational capability and prepare for the introduction of the Sea King Mk7 helicopters’ successors, Merlin HM.2 aircraft modified for the mission under Project Crowsnest.
Eyes of the Fleet
Externally, the current version of the Sea King ASaC Mk7 bears close resemblance to its forebear, the AEW Mk2. Hastily developed and designed after the Falklands War exposed the Navy’s lack of airborne early warning capability, Mk2 Sea Kings were modified with Searchwater radar mounted on a strut protruding from the rear of the cargo door.
Rumor has it that the design was so hasty that North Sea gas pipe was used to manufacture the support strut, as it most closely matched the requirements. Instead of a solid composite radome, the scanner was housed in an inflatable aramid bag, a weight-saving measure that led to its crews being christened “the Baggers” — a moniker they have worn proudly since. Their role as “the eyes of the fleet” was traditionally to fly in support of the aircraft carrier, giving warning of impending air attacks and controlling the defensive screen of fighter aircraft.
In 2002, upgrades brought the aircraft to ASaC Mk7 standard, fitting GPS/INS navigation systems, the Thales Cerberus mission system, and a radar upgrade to the digitally processed Searchwater 2000. This package brought the capability to operate the radar in both surface and air modes simultaneously, using Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) Link 16 to pass contacts of interest to other aircraft or surface vessels. The cockpit remained a fully “steam-gauge” affair, with no provision for navigation aids or GPS; the pilot being wholly reliant on his rear-seat crew for situational awareness.
The Cerberus upgrade broadened the aircraft’s capability massively, and has resulted in its crews being arguably the most broadly qualified in the Fleet Air Arm. Each three-man crew consists of one pilot and two observers from the Navy’s Weapons Systems officer branch. As well as operating their own aircraft, observers are trained in maritime, air and land surveillance, and support to strike and air interdiction. In addition, they are fully trained fighter controllers, exercising frequently with British Typhoon and French Rafale squadrons.
By 2009, with the conflict in the Helmand province of Afghanistan reaching a feverish crescendo, the U.K. faced an ever-increasing requirement for airborne surveillance platforms to support ground forces. Critically, a means was being sought to identify routes that were being used to smuggle ammunition and weapons into the country, and drugs (the Taliban’s main form of income) out.
The U.K. and U.S. were having some success through concentrated intelligence methods, but with no way to cross-cue aircraft equipped with electro-optic/infra-red (EO/IR) cameras, positive identification and targeting was becoming a problem. Searching wide areas through the so-called “soda straw” of a targeting pod was impractical. What was needed was the ability to scan the vastness of Afghanistan’s desert borders, cross reference available intelligence with this picture, and then track these targets until they could be positively identified.
The Sea King ASaC Mk7 was perfect for the task. Once again, hasty modifications were called for. Upgraded Gnome 1400-1T engines and eventually high-performance Carson rotor blades would enable the aircraft to operate at maximum weight high above the baking Afghan desert, while new secure radios enabled voice communication with troops on the ground. Counter-measure flares and infra-red jammers were fitted. Crews were trained to use night vision goggles, including techniques required to land in “brownout” conditions — recirculating desert dust which even during daytime presents considerable risk of pilot disorientation.
Weeks later, two aircraft and three crews — supported by around a 50-strong ground team of engineers and intelligence personnel — found themselves operating from Camp Bastion. Their role was to cross the Green Zone and fly deep into the desert, working to find smugglers. Refueling at remote sites, the aircraft would operate alone, up to 120 miles from the nearest friendly base, on sorties that could last in excess of seven hours. At a time when other helicopters would not fly without at least two in the formation, the Baggers relied on their height and the low profile of their work as their only real protection.
While the engineers worked in temperatures exceeding 55 C on the ground, aircrews were exposed to temperatures just as high in their non air-conditioned cockpit, down to as low as -15 C over the mountains of southern Afghanistan.
The SKASaC force left Afghanistan during the Herrick drawdown in 2014. After over five years of operating there, with 2,000 sorties and over 9,000 hours flown, and having suffered only one battle-damage repair, the Baggers had been directly responsible for the seizure of 40 tonnes of drugs, 173 tonnes of homemade explosive and precursors used to make IEDs, and over 20,000 rounds of ammunition, with 150 insurgents killed or captured.
Bridging the Gap
Having spent the majority of the last five years in Afghanistan, and with two new aircraft carriers on the way, attention in the SKASaC community — and the wider Navy — turned to the regeneration of maritime capability. They found themselves subject matter experts in land surveillance and ISR, but with many crews who had never embarked on a warship. While the end of Op Herrick signaled a chance to recuperate for many, for the SKASaC Force it was back to business as usual, with some flying direct from Afghanistan to their new theater, the Gulf.
The end of 2014 saw the re-structuring of the force, with 854 and 857 NAS being disbanded, and 849 NAS expanding into three flights and a headquarters element. The flights took their names from the squadron’s Second World War battle honors —Palembang, Normandy and Okinawa — with at least one being operationally deployed at any time, and another taking up exercise tasking and U.K. commitments.
Deployments to the Gulf see the flights embarking on Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels, providing their wide-area surveillance and control capability to a variety of task forces that contribute to that region’s stability. While they operate on board, crews are able to train with the ship’s company and build their maritime experience. Aware that the aerial security of the carrier will be their responsibility in the future, building aircrews’ embarked expertise is a priority for 849 NAS’s commanding officer, Commander Roger Kennedy.
Kennedy said, “With the carriers on the way, the Navy is experiencing a lot of change, and we have to be at the forefront of that in order to be able to hit the ground running with Crowsnest, when it arrives. We are privileged to be the last U.K. operators of the Sea King, and it’s a testament to the aircraft, its crews and maintainers, that they have been deployed without pause for the past seven years and continue to operate at a high tempo.”
Although their airframes are over 40 years old, his crews achieve over 100 hours a month flying both day and night in a climate every bit as challenging as that in Afghanistan.
When the carrier arrives, however, it is unlikely that its protection will fall to the SKASaC. By then, the AEW baton is likely to have been passed to the Merlin, flying the Crowsnest system — the exact capabilities of which are still under discussion, and will likely by highly classified even after they have been decided.
ISR is rapidly becoming just as important to the modern Royal Navy as AEW was in the Falklands, and it is a complex and ever-changing mission over land, let alone operating from a moving ship. Whatever the Baggers’ new system, its capability will be overwhelmingly influenced by the knowledge and expertise of the people manning it.
For now, those people are keeping their skills alive flying a 40-year-old aircraft, and neither are showing any signs of slowing down.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force has now retired its Mk4 Sea King model.
