PRESERVER vice PROVIDER. I wasn't there but I understand they did utility lift and recce/surveillance. Sam69 ?beenthere said:They moved a lot of stores from Provider to shore in Somalia and provided an essential service. I don't recall seeing them in Belet Huen but there were distinct phases of the operation where they were doing a lot of ops on shore and others where they weren't as involved.
I have no direct knowledge but would think that the initial deployment phase would be when they were doing most of the airlift to shore.
When I was there the Belet Huen part of the operation had been well established and only required sustainment.
Don't forget that the CH124B config for SCTF PoC in Nov/Dec will be able to swing between straight troop lift with all the seats or be turned around reasonably quickly to use the sidefacing console with the usual (old) sensors minus ASW specific kit plus a few extra seats in the back depending on range/endurance requirements. In the latter config, the aft crew seats would be back in and the TACCO and AESOP would be back in their more conventional MH roles (minus ASW). Flexibility, the key to helo ops ?h3tacco said:Beenthere I pretty much agree with you. Sea Kings have done utility work since the begining but basically any helicopter can do utility in a non-threat in environment. You don't need a Nav, AESOp or FE specifically for the ultility role basically just an aft crewman. The current situation of using Nav and AESOps for the SCTF is basically because those are the people we have in Shearwater right now.
ch124xx said:Any news on how the SCTF exercise ITEEx went ? What next for SCF ? for the CH124C ?
Glad you cleared that up, I didn't remember anyone from 443 going over (but then again, at my age the mind starts to go ;D)ch124xx said:PRESERVER vice PROVIDER. I wasn't there but I understand they did utility lift and recce/surveillance. Sam69 ?
ch124xx said:PRESERVER vice PROVIDER. I wasn't there but I understand they did utility lift and recce/surveillance. Sam69 ?
geo said:daft,
Believe the US President has had his ride upgraded over the last year. Was a sea thing but.... no more.
Ex-Dragoon said:IIRC Marine One was being replaced with an EH101s
Ex-Dragoon said:IIRC Marine One was being replaced with an EH101s
GAP said:Those the ones we cancelled?
Ex-Dragoon said:Yup...well we got the variant for SAR work
daftandbarmy said:For what it's worth, I've spent lots of time jumping in and out of Sea Kings from Norway to N.I. to the Gulf, from sea level to up around 9,000 ft, from minus 30C to plus 40 C, day and night, out at sea and over land, and I'm pretty much one of their biggest fans. Awesome helicopter. The version used by the Royal Navy (Mk 5 I think?) holds 16 fully loaded troops, two ski bundles, 2 loaded toboggans. We could also cram about 30 troops into them with just webbing on if we had to. Great navigation package. Tough as shoe leather. Small enough to drop into fairly restricted LZs (like a ship's deck, small SF base helipad, small mountainside meadows etc). Big enough to undersling a 105 lt gun or a loaded RHIB. Great platform for fast roping and rappelling. Good winch system. They're even great to parachute from. The US President flies in one. Civilian airlines use them. I see them all the time (S61 version) flying underslung logs around on the coast here. And they even float!
However, as with anything else, good performance is a function of adequate financial investment.