NO MEAN feats” by Sea King ground crews have ensured they’ve picked up a prestigious award.
Against particularly strong competition from the rest of the Fleet Air Arm, the maritime Sea King Force were awarded the Rolls-Royce Engineering Efficiency Trophy.
The award is typically presented to an individual squadron, but the accomplishments of the maritime Sea King Force – that’s 771 Naval Air Squadron and Gannet Search and Rescue Flight, plus the trio of ‘Bagger’ squadrons, 849, 854 and 857 – over the past 12 months so impressed senior officers and Rolls-Royce bosses that they determined the entire force should be recognised.
The two naval Search and Rescue units – Culdrose-based 771 NAS and Gannet at Prestwick in Scotland were scrambled more than 650 times, not counting training missions and other regular duties.
As for the Baggers, the Airborne Surveillance and Control helicopters are the ‘eyes in the sky’ of Allied ground troops in southern Afghanistan, monitoring the activity of insurgents. The helicopters are in Afghan skies daily – and each sortie lasts several hours.
All this effort in the skies demands an enormous input from the technicans, mechanicians and engineers on the ground – for every hour airborne it’s reckoned that a Sea King devours around a dozen ‘man hours’.
“The last 12 months have seen many of the force operating in Afghanistan in the fight against the insurgents while back in the UK others have continued to conduct Search and Rescue duties around the clock,” said Cdr Pat Douglas, Sea King Helicopter Force Commander.
“The achievement of these tasks is no mean feat and we only succeed with the support, dedication and focus of our engineers and maintainers. This is a very proud day for all of us in the Sea King Force.”
His words were endorsed by Rear Admiral Tom Cunningham, the head of the Fleet Air Arm who told the Sea King men and women that they’d had “a real impact” in Afghanistan, played a key role in exercises with the Fleet, and provided “unprecedented levels of Search and Rescue response”.
He added: “These achievements by Sea King Force engineers have demanded dedication, innovation, agility and efficiency and have been in the finest traditions of the Fleet Air Arm. The Sea King Force fully deserves recognition through the award of the Rolls-Royce Efficiency Trophy.”
The trophy was presented in 771 NAS’s recently-modernised hangar at Culdrose in the presence of Cdre David Marsh (Assistant Chief of Staff, Logistics) and Rolls-Royce’s Senior Vice President – Engineering and Technology Ian Ritchey as principal guests. With the exception of personnelon front-line duties in Afghanistan, the enitre maritime Sea King Force was present.
A Sea King of 854 NAS starts to lower its bag as it heads off from Camp Bastion on another surveillance mission high above Helmand. Picture: LA(Phot) Alex Cave, 854 NAS
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