UK Sea King retirement will leave gaps

Yes, slip of the finger on keyboard. Thanks for pointing that out.
I don’t want to labour the point, but I was sure they were naval variants, and it wasn’t just
the airframe or engines they were referring to at the time

Never mind, I bow to your superior knowledge 😉

It was a long time ago. I shall say no more

It was stated in a documentary that I saw on TV some years ago. An RAF officer (I seem to remember) saying that the
technology on the Sea king was 20yrs out of date, by the time it came into service. May have been on Ark Royal ?
I don’t recall the Mark of aircraft in question.

I’m only repeating what was said.

Pay attention to what you just said… RAF officer, NOT RN FAA!

Sea King first flight 1959;

RN Sea King ordered 1966 (first 4 assembled in US & flown 1966);

First Westland-produced Sea King delivered 1969 (with then-state-of-the-art ASW suite, but 10-year-old airframe/powertrain/rotor design);

First RAF Sea Kings delivered 1978… so THOSE were the “20-year-old” airframe/powertrain/rotor design!

Read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Wings-My-Sleeve-Phoenix-Press/dp/0753822091/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

It has a bit about the adoption of the Sea King. It was state of the art when it came to ASW capabilities at the time.

The Sea King when it entered UK service in 1969 was state of the art for the era. It was an all weather ASW type that could prosecute a target in the seas of the North Atlantic. It’s auto hover capability was apparently amazing at the time! It had a superior systems fit to American SH-3D and was chosen over the Chinook for the role by the RN.

So I don’t quite see what you are getting at Alan.

It was stated in a documentary that I saw on TV some years ago. An RAF officer (I seem to remember) saying that the
technology on the Sea king was 20yrs out of date, by the time it came into service. May have been on Ark Royal ?
I don’t recall the Mark of aircraft in question.

I’m only repeating what was said.

I took this in 2009. Only using a point and shoot camera through a window on the ship we were on.
It was coming to pick up an injured crew member.

[QUOTE=Obi Wan Russell;1980954][QUOTE=hjelpekokk;1980721] Please retire all your seakings as soon as posible and send them all as spare part to our (Norwegian) SAR seakings! New sar helicopter still not choosen :'(
Best helicopter we have ever had, but its old, and difficult to get spares.

We have half of our retired about half of our Sea King Fleet, the HAS6 models which were replaced in the fleet ASW role by Merlin HM1s over a decade ago. Most have been reduced to spare parts now to keep the rest (RAF HAR3s, RN HC4s, HU5s and ASaC7s) flying. Put in a bid now to cannibalise what’s left when they leave service!

On behalf of my goverment, I shal do that, cause they will never get the finger out to do it!

[QUOTE=hjelpekokk;1980721] Please retire all your seakings as soon as posible and send them all as spare part to our (Norwegian) SAR seakings! New sar helicopter still not choosen :'(
Best helicopter we have ever had, but its old, and difficult to get spares.
[QUOTE]

We have half of our retired about half of our Sea King Fleet, the HAS6 models which were replaced in the fleet ASW role by Merlin HM1s over a decade ago. Most have been reduced to spare parts now to keep the rest (RAF HAR3s, RN HC4s, HU5s and ASaC7s) flying. Put in a bid now to cannibalise what’s left when they leave service!

Please retire all your seakings as soon as posible and send them all as spare part to our (Norwegian) SAR seakings! New sar helicopter still not choosen :'(
Best helicopter we have ever had, but its old, and difficult to get spares.

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vg.no%2Fnyheter%2Finnenriks%2Fartikkel.php%3Fartid%3D10056624&act=url

Buble text on comic says “Can you ask the Russians step on it?
We are after all on a rescue mission”

The Sea King when it entered UK service in 1969 was state of the art for the era. It was an all weather ASW type that could prosecute a target in the seas of the North Atlantic. It’s auto hover capability was apparently amazing at the time! It had a superior systems fit to American SH-3D and was chosen over the Chinook for the role by the RN.

So I don’t quite see what you are getting at Alan. Is the carrier over budget…yes. Will an ASaC be there when the start sea trials…no. But it will take several years to work the ship up into a fully effective weapon system.

Well considering HMS Queen Elizabeth won’t even enter sea trials until 2017 and see an F35 on deck until late 2017 maybe even 2018 with a planned full in service date of 2020 it is not quite the disaster one would think. It will take a number of years for the FAA and RAF to work the jet into the carrier operational system.

You forgot the bit about it being £1bn+ over budget .

I’m sure that I saw something on TV about the Sea King, saying that when it eventually entered service,
it was already 20yrs out of date.
Although that probably goes for a lot of the equipment used by our armed services.

Here’s me thinking I’d posted on the subject of ASaC, Crowsnest and the like….:confused:

Anybody care to speculate what this sentence could mean?:

“The department is examining alternative means of closing these capability gaps,” the government’s spending watchdog says.

This screams out Anglo Italian tiltrotor to me….;)

Well considering HMS Queen Elizabeth won’t even enter sea trials until 2017 and see an F35 on deck until late 2017 maybe even 2018 with a planned full in service date of 2020 it is not quite the disaster one would think. It will take a number of years for the FAA and RAF to work the jet into the carrier operational system.