The service career of the Shorts Cormorant and Cormorant II

[simmie]

In the years between 1958 and 1976, Britain and Iceland had 3 separate disputes over territorial fishing rights in the North Atlantic.  The term 'Cod War' was created by the British tabloid press.  Following the 3rd  'Cod war', in 1976.  The British Government initiated departmental reviews into how each of the relevant ministries had dealt with the dispute.

However, very soon it became clear that each ministerial review crossed over into those that were being carried out by other ministries.  Eventually a single committee made up of Ministry of Defence (MOD), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Environment, (DOE) and Department of Transport (DOT).

The joint committee reported back to the cabinet with its recommendations.  The conclusions of the final report were that certain aspects of the British response had been, at best below the level that was expected.  The Royal Navy had clearly struggled to protect the British fish vessels that were involved.  This was a serious worry with the increasing development of North Sea oil, and the associated security concerns raised by them.

The Department of the Environment was also concerned about the potential environmental damage from any leakage of oil from one of the rapidly multiplying installations.  Additionally, D of E was concerned about the increasing summer temperatures, and the increasing risk of forest and heath land fires.  The summer of 1976 was one of the hottest ever recorded in Britain, with draught conditions causing water shortages and the use of stand pipes for domestic users.

The final recommendation was that all 4 ministries should combine their budgets and, as a matter of urgency, jointly purchase a number (28) Canadair CL215's to be known as the Shorts Cormorant.  They were to be operated by the FAA, the RAF and the Coast Guard.  They were to be based around the country, in a similar way to SAR helicopters, in a number of occasions co-based with them.

They were to perform the following duties (the Ministry responsible):
-   Fisheries protection and monitoring, especially for the deep sea trawler fleet, up around Iceland and Norway.(DTI)
-   Spray any oil spills from tankers or the new oil fields in North Sea. (DOE)
-   Security monitoring said oil and gas fields (DTI/MOD)
-   Forest and moor land fire fighting capability (DOE)
-   Long range ASR coverage(MOD/DTI)
-   Additional war time ASW coverage (MOD)

To provide the maximum coverage of the British coast the Cormorants were to be stationed in 2 aircraft flights so that there was always 1 aircraft on alert 24hrs a day.  The aircraft were to be stationed at the following sites:-
HM Coast Guard - Stornaway, Coltishall, Lerwick and Alderney.
Royal Air Force, (as flights of 204 Sqn) – Boulmer (A flt), Aldergrove (B Flt), Brawdy (C Flt) and Lossiemouth (D Flt).
Fleet Air Arm, (as flights of 803 Sqn) - Culdrose, HMS Sea Hawk (A Flt), Prestwick, HMS Gannet, (B Flt) and Yeovilton, HMS Heron, (C Flt).

Later the 2 spare aircraft were stationed at Sek Kong, manned by joint RAF/RN personnel.

And a training flight and a join RAF/RN HQ based at RAF Coningsby.  The aircraft were painted in a mix of RAF, RN and Coast Guard colours dependant upon where they are based, and thus there nominal owner.  The RAF went with the standard Air Sea Rescue yellow.  The Royal Navy adopted the same colours as the Sea King fleet, with fluorescent orange panels around the nose and tail, as well as both wing tips.  The Coast Guard elected to use white with the same orange panels as the navy, all aircraft had orange chevrons along the hulls under side.

The order for the Cormorant was placed so as to coincide with committee's full report was published in early 1977.  The Serial No's XX-123 – XX-135, XX-151 – XX-152, XX-155, XX-206 – XX-216, were issued.  These having been, previously, blocks of unused numbers under the block system normally used at that time.  The Coast Guard aircraft never actually carried their serial numbers as they were to operate as civil aircraft with the appropriate registrations.

The first aircraft were delivered green to the Shorts factory, in Belfast, to be fitted out with the U.K specific systems, such as radar, radios and rescue equipment.  Shorts were chosen for political reasons, although the public line was that it was due to the company's previous flying boat experience.  The wings were fitted with 4 hard points of which half were also plumbed for drop tanks.  Some tanks were converted as searchlight pods and carried, virtually, permanently.

The first 3 aircraft completed underwent equipment and weapons release trials at Boscombe Down.  The aircraft being cleared to release guided torpedoes, sonar buoys and SNEB rocket pods.  With the completion of these service trials the aircraft entered service in April 1978, with 803Sqn FAA.

From 1978 till 1982, Cormorant carried out the various jobs they had been purchased to do without any real faults being note.  The aircraft performed their duties in a quietly dependable manner.  From spraying oil spills in the North Sea, to flying seriously ill children to specialist treatment in major city hospitals.  From dowsing moorland fires on Dartmoor, to policing fishing limits and monitoring Soviet spy trawlers.  Two Coast Guard aircraft assisted the French during the Amoco Cadiz disaster, although they operated out of Alderney mainly to cover the Channel Islands they did spray large sections of the French mainland.  XX-128, B Flt 204 Sqn, was lost during a rescue in the winter of 1980-81.  It was attempting to lift the crew of Aberdeen registered trawler from 250 miles out in the North Atlantic when it was swamped by a large wave.  With both engines drowned the crew tried to call for assistance, but the aerials had also been damaged.  For several hours the aircraft bobbed helplessly in the heavy swell, till XX-153, B Flt 803 Sqn, managed to land between the waves and rescue the 4 crew and the 7 trawler men.  Heavily loaded the aircraft had to surf down the waves to gain sufficient speed to get airborne.  It managed to make its way to Westport, in The Irish Republic, for a safe landing.  Subsequently one of the fisher men died due to injuries that he had sustained in the when the trawler sank.  The pilots of XX-153 received the Queens Gallantry Medal for their actions.

With the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina was to initiate the launching of Operation Corporate.  As the Task Force set off A&AEE at Boscombe started a series of trials on a variety of types, this included the Cormorant.  Like the Nimrod, a flight refuelling probe installation had been jury rigged by Flight Refuelling, to allow the aircraft to operate over the South Atlantic in support of the Task Force.  4 aircraft (2*RAF +2*RN) were painted all over dark grey, with low viz roundels.  They were fitted out with over load tanks in the cabin, and set out for Ascension Island, via Gibraltar.  The refuelling probes were flown out on one of the many Hercules flights being flown between the UK and Ascension at the time.  Also onboard the Hercules were sets of flame damper exhausts (based on those fitted to Bristol Hercules engines of the RAF museum's Bristol Beaufighter).  In addition, a rudimentary armament was installed.  This consisted in 3 GPMG's, 2 mounted at the forward windows on pintal mounts strapped to the cargo rails in the floor, the 3rd was hung from cargo straps in the main door.  Too protect the gunners from the cold of the fast approaching South Atlantic winter, the RAF Museum again dived into the archives and came up with heated flight suits, boots and gloves, as had been used by Bomber Command.  The crews, soon, realised that they could be worn outside the aircraft on substantial extension leads, so they tended to sleep close to the aircraft when they were beached at Grytviken Harbour, South Georgia as a forward operating base.  Aircraft were used to move SAS/SBS around the theatre.  It is believed that they flew from South Georgia covering the Great Southern Ocean.  As the war drew to a close the aircraft were used to patrol inter island channel and to deploy SAS/SBS teams around the islands making sure to clear up the last few pockets of Argentinean troops on West Falklands and some of the other islands.  Due to the nature of their special operations work, there are few details concerning the aircrafts operations during the war.  It is rumoured that a Cormorant was involved in the operation that resulted in a Royal Navy Sea King being found burned out in Southern Chile.

After the war 2 aircraft were attached to RAF Mount Pleasant to patrol the Falklands Economic Zone, monitoring the fishing and oil exploration in the area.  Also, they were tasked in support of the British Antarctic Survey bases when Endurance was off station.

After the Falklands War, the Cormorant's went back to their day job.  On the 6th July 1987, the oil production platform Piper Alpha exploded.  Cormorants from Lossiemouth, Boulmer, Lerwick and Prestwick were scrambled to the scene.  The crews found something akin to hell on earth, with the sea boiling under the platform and burning all around the remnants of the installation.  The search and rescue operation was stood down the following day and became one of body recovery.  Cormorants maintained a presence around the platform, spraying the oil that was leaking from the destroyed well heads.  For their actions on the night of the disaster all the participating crews received the Air Force Medal.

In the mid 80's began looking into a replacement or upgrade for the CL-215 Cormorant.  They announced the CL-215T as a retrofit to existing aircraft.  Upgrade included improvements to the aircrafts handling and power, as well as the fitting of a NVG compatible cockpit.  The new Pratt and Whitney Canada PW123AF turboprops were originally intended as the only change, but the changes became more involved, and eventually included improvement of systems and aerodynamics.  Canadair converted the first 2 aircraft as development aircraft.  The first one flew on 8th June 1989.  The British Cormorants were put through this upgrade program at Shorts, as and when they came up for major overhaul.  Sea spray radar fitted to allow the aircraft to launch Sea Skua anti-ship missiles and Stingray homing torpedoes.  The Mk.2 became operational in January 1991.  The first aircraft were not to have a quiet period to allow them to be eased into service.  During this programme that Shorts were sold to Bombardier

This upgrade programme was interrupted by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and the subsequent war.  Operation Granby was launched in August 1990.  Once again the Cormorants were deployed.  A mixed group of RAF and RN aircraft were sent to operate from Bahrain.  The powers at be tried to keep all those aircraft deployed to the same Mk.2 standard.  However, with only limited numbers of the Mk.2 were to become available for the operation, but, some pre-upgrade Cormorants were also deployed before the end of the conflict.  The flame damping exhausts were brought out of storage, and refitted before deployment.  Later air filters were produced based upon the RAF Museum's archives.  The RAF had operated in Iraq during World War II, and had experience of the nature of the sand in the area.  This allowed the filters to be effective from the beginning of their use.  Most of the Cormorants war was spent patrolling close inshore, monitoring sea traffic and watching out for any Iraqi incursions along the beach.  These aircraft were painted Hemp, as was Nimrod.  When Saddam ordered the opening of an oil pipeline in order to poison the Saudi desalination plants.  Cormorants were quickly on the scene to spray the resulting slick and thus helped to prevent a major ecological disaster.  As had been the case in the Falklands, the aircraft were again to spend a substantial amount of their time in the Middle East was spent in support of the SAS and SBS.  These aircraft were painted in the same all over sand as other aircraft in the deployment, such as Tornado and Jaguar.  They also had the same rubberized treatment on the aircrafts undersides as Hercules.  This allowed them to operate out of small airstrips and roads in the desert.  On a number of occasions, Cormorants were used to recover downed aircrew from behind enemy lines.  As the war came to its raged end, Cormorants were used to help in the extinguishing of the Kuwaiti oil well fires.  The last aircraft came home November 1991.

By the mid 1990's the fleet had been in service for twenty years, and had managed to accumulate substantial hours.  The Coast Guard had gone their own way with the ordering of 5 CL415MR's with out consulting with the RAF or FAA.  The fragile co-operation of the 70's had broken down as the military aircraft had been increasingly been deployed on more aggressive missions.

The MOD began to look around at possible replacement aircraft.  New build Canadair CL-415 were top of the list, although all possible options including Beriev Be200, Shin Meiwa US-2 and the Chinese Harbin 5.  However the only real option was to turn again to Canada and purchase the, now Bombardier CL415 as the Shorts Cormorant II MRA 1.  The equipment was much as the Cormorant MR.Mk2, but with the addition of an Electro-optics suit and improved ESM systems.  They also benefited from a glass cockpit display, with each pilot having 3 CRT displays and a wide angle HUD.

Older aircraft were returned to Belfast and refurbished at Shorts.  They were to be sold on to Caribbean states for anti-drug smuggling and anti-piracy patrol.  Apart from the 2 in the Falklands that were transferred over to a local start up airline 'Penguin Air'.  They were used to start an internal service and tourist sightseeing flights.  Their accommodation was fairly basic, but the aircraft operated with little or no problem in an environment not that dissimilar to that they had been originally designed for.

The first of the new aircraft was handed over in a ceremony at RAF Coningsby in October 1999, as part of the new Joint Force Cormorant, or JFC.  The aircraft were to take on new surveillance duties, participating in the enforcement of UN sanctions against Iraq and in the Balkans.  This resulted in their greater use over seas, and so the number of domestic SAR tasked aircraft was slowly cut back, with the resultant closer of detachments at Aldergrove, Brawdy, Yeovilton and Boulmer.

In 2003, the JFC was, again, deployed to action in the Gulf, to participate in Operation Telic.  Little is really known about the aircrafts activities in the theatre.  Only limited amount of maritime patrol work was actually undertaken by those aircraft deployed.  It would appear, from reports in the media that they were heavily involved in the movement of Special Forces, especially on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Shatt al Arab waterway.  It is also reported that they have operated from the large lakes Buhayrat ath Tharthar and Buhayrat ar Razazah in central Iraq.  What is known is that were, on occasion, joined by the Bombardier/Lear MC-30A Pave Duck's of the US Marine corps and the US navy.

The Americans had been impressed by the British Cormorant's performance during the first Gulf War.  With its amphibious abilities allowing it to deploy/recover SBS teams close inshore, as well its performance in the desert.  Even thought this was an alien environment for the type.  The Army Special Forces Command had initially shown interest, but later dropped out in favour of more helicopters.  The Marines had initially pushed for a purchase of 100 aircraft, later this was cutback to 50.  But when the funding was finally approved it was for 38 aircraft.  This plus the Navy' purchase of 17, meant the Lear was to build 51 aircraft, the first 2 aircraft for each contract were assembled in Canada and used for initial trial, systems integration and as pattern aircraft.  The first service aircraft was handed over at Cherry Point MCAS 26th August 1996.

The MC-30A is equipped to a similar standard as the RAF/FAA Cormorant II MRA.Mk.1, except that the equipment is all of American origin and they are fitted with a larger freight door on the port side of the aircraft.  This is to facilitate the passage through it of the small inflatables used for the insertion/extraction of SEAL and Marine teams.  The aircraft are currently deployed world in support of the American War on Terror, this included Afghanistan, although details are hard to obtain.

[Maverick]

Brilliant stuff Euan,

Quite detailed and well thought out.

Regards,

Mav

[simmie]

Thanks there Mav

Glad to know that the effort has been appriciated.

Open challenge to all artists,

I would really love to have some art of these aircraft, at all stages of its career.

Over to you guy's

Simmie