Saying goodbye to an old friend

[Spey_Phantom]

Yesterday, i went to Koksijde Air Base to say goodbye to an old friend, a Westland Seaking Mk.48, serial RS03.
the aircraft made its last flight before retirement, and will now be used a source of spares to keep the remaining 3 airworthy.
RS03 was the second of the 5 seakings to retire (RS01 was retired in 2008, now resides in the Brussels Army Museum).
the aircraft was withdrawn as part of the gradual retirement of the type, following the gradual introduction of the NH90-NFH, of witch the first of 4 for the unit is expected to arrive in November.

the RS03 is special to me, as almost 3 years ago, i got to have a flight in this particular machine.

so, goodbye old friend, and thank you for everything  

pictures: http://40squadron.webs.com/apps/blog/show/32687100-29-08-2013-farewell-rs03

[PR19_Kit]

Excellent Nils, nice you were able to get there to say goodbye. 

[Thorvic]

Seems odd to be replacing such colourful aircraft with rather bland grey NH-90 NTH .

Sad to see the Sea Kings go, the last of the UK ones go by 2016 and i still can't fathom why Sea Kings are scrapped whilst the turd of a Puma gets yet another refit and life extention !. More about dodgy deals than military capability 

[Rheged]

After the recent Puma incident near Shetland, with 4 fatalities,  might there be an MoD rethink  about the SeaKing?

[Captain Canada]

Great pics Nils ! Love love love the Sea King ! Gonna miss that bird when she's gone....

[kitbasher]

Sad to see the Sea Kings go, the last of the UK ones go by 2016 and i still can't fathom why Sea Kings are scrapped whilst the turd of a Puma gets yet another refit and life extention !. More about dodgy deals than military capability  

The Sea Kings are (mostly) very long in the tooth to be fair and its not just the airframes that will be going but also the military SAR role.  In March 2013 the Department for Transport announced that it had a signed a contract with Bristow Helicopters Ltd to provide search and rescue helicopter services in the UK with operations will commencing progressively from 2015. The new service is expected to be fully operational across the United Kingdom by summer 2017and will utilize AgustaWestland AW189 and Sikorsky S-92 based in ten locations around the UK.

The Puma rebuild programme is, on the other hand, intended to keep the Puma in service in its intended role - battlefield support helicopter - until 2025.  No re-role and basically it's doing what it was designed to do.  Whether it would have been better to buy a new aircraft or not is I suppose The Big Question.  The Blackhawk is rather smaller (think big Lynx) and the AW149 is a shade smaller, which leaves the NH90 and Super Puma/Cougar variants.

[Martin H]

which leaves the NH90 and Super Puma/Cougar variants.

Doubt any of them would be chosen. The RAF is madly in love with the Wooka so would use it as a chance to buy even more of Mr Boeings mighty death banana.

[kitbasher]

which leaves the NH90 and Super Puma/Cougar variants.

Doubt any of them would be chosen. The RAF is madly in love with the Wokka so would use it as a chance to buy even more of Mr Boeing's mighty death banana.

The procurement process has also got to be considered in the context of who does what and where.  Despite the advent of Joint helicopter Command there is a lot of rivalry between the RAF, RN and Army when it comes to helicopters.  There was huge infighting over Apache - the RAF claimed it was too complex for the Army and was closer to the Harrier in role than anything the AAC had flown.  The Army prevailed in the end.

As far as support helicopters are concerned, the RAF seems to have won the battle to be the heavy lift boys, with extra Chinooks bought (and the extant fleet modified) while the Merlin goes to the Navy.  That makes sense in a way as it's essentially their sole 'big' helicopter with a host of economies of scale to take advantage of - even though the HC.3 needs to be 'marinised' to the extent the Junglie Sea King HC.4 is/was.  Which leaves the Puma.

A smaller replacement would probably see the Army fighting a hard battle to get the 'rights' to it, thus seriously emasculating the RAF's aviation role.  And maybe bringing slightly closer the end of what the RN gleefully/derisively call the '100 Year Experiment'.  Which, if successful, would be the RN's first major victory since the Battle of Trafalgar (bearing in mind the Falklands War was very much a joint effort)!

[NARSES2]

Things don't change. In building my Wellesley I've been trying to get my head around the 1930's politics when the RAF controlled the FAA. I'll get there in the end 

[rickshaw]

Which, if successful, would be the RN's first major victory since the Battle of Trafalgar (bearing in mind the Falklands War was very much a joint effort)!

A wee bit of an exaggeration there, me thinks.    I can think of several battles the RN won in WWI and WWII which weren't a result of "jointery".

[NARSES2]

Yea but it all hinges on your definition of "major" 

[Captain Canada]

In other Sea King news...the Navy has painted this bird up in 50th Anniversary colours. I had always planned on making one myself, and painting it overall gold, and calling it Golden Boy ! The Cyclone fiasco might mean another 50 years of Sea Kings !

[PR19_Kit]

Are the Canadian Sea Kings Yeovil built? They have very similar aerial fits to RAF and FAA ones.

[Spey_Phantom]

as far as i know, Canadian Seakings are US built SH-3's, but improved with westland additions (such as the camelhump radar on the back).

[kitbasher]

Yea but it all hinges on your definition of "major"  

And it's a good way of winding up the Navy!

In other Sea King news...the Navy has painted this bird up in 50th Anniversary colours. I had always planned on making one myself, and painting it overall gold, and calling it Golden Boy ! The Cyclone fiasco might mean another 50 years of Sea Kings !

Are they Dartmouth/Shearwater NS Sea Kings?