RN Fleet Air Arm: Wildcat Helicopter Squadrons

[Pelican]

Royal Navy Wildcats to ‘unleash full potential’ in 2024

According to a recent press release from the Royal Navy, its fleet of Wildcat maritime attack helicopters is poised to reach its “true potential” in 2024.

Enhanced with new weaponry and technology, these helicopters are set to transform significantly after nearly a decade in frontline service.

Lieutenant Scott Sunderland, an instructor pilot with 825 Naval Air Squadron, expressed his enthusiasm for the upgrades in the press release. “I’ve spent most of my time with Wildcat in a period where we haven’t had any hard kill capability,” he noted. “But now, with these missiles coming online, it’s an absolute game changer.”

Continues at - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/royal-n ... l-in-2024/

[Pelican]

Packing a punch – Footage shows impact of Martlet missile

Footage from the terminal phase of the first in-service night firing of Martlet has been published by 815 Naval Air Squdron
The video was recorded on an exercise on a Danish range and is the first in-service night firing from an aircraft.

See - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/packing ... t-missile/

[Pelican]

Royal Navy attack helicopters hunt foes in Norwegian fjord exercise

The Royal Navy’s Wildcat maritime attack helicopters have demonstrated their ability to hunt down and engage enemy forces during a game of cat and mouse in the Norwegian fjords.

Yeovilton-based 815 Naval Air Squadron have been exercising with four of the Royal Navy’s P2000 patrol ships, two Norwegian corvettes and frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen off Bergen, in one of the world’s most challenging environments, for Exercise Tamber Shield.

Alongside the P2000s, the Wildcats were tasked with finding and targeting the Skjold-class corvettes amongst the many inlets and narrow waterways of the fjords.

In one particular scenario, HMS Biter and HMS Exploit, part of the Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces Squadron, headed north from Bergen, while fellow P2000s HMS Trumpeter and HMS Blazer headed south to use their skills and expertise to locate the Norwegian vessels before relaying that information to 815 NAS who were charged with making simulated attacks.

Capable of 60 knots, the Skjolds are fast and agile – using their camouflage to blend into the landscape, which their crew knows like the back of their hand.

However, aircrew from 815 NAS were more than up for the challenge, employing newly developed tactics to fend off the fast attack craft threat.

Continues https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... ber-shield