RAN Lite Helo Operations

With this commitment in mind it seems appropriate to document the role of a ship-borne flight.

The jungle-green coloured Bell touched down on the flight deck of HMAS Stalwarton the day of sailing, February 28. At the controls were Lieutenant Jim Llewellyn and Sub-Lieutenant Ian Sangston. The total personnel for the flight numbered eight: the two pilots, one aircrewman and five maintainers.

The first 10 days of the deployment were hectic with work-ups leading to the Anzus exercise Sea Eagle off the east Australian coast. During Sea Eagle, the helo flight tackled almost every aspect of the capability they would have to perform in the months ahead.

There were two reasons for embarking a flight on such a deployment: to provide general Fleet support and to provide crew training for the men aboard the RAN’s Guided Missile Frigates (FFGs).

General Fleet support involves such pedestrian but essential roles as personnel and stores transfer, control of surface gunnery targets and at the ‘sharper end’ of the business, anti-submarine controller (ASAC) training. The latter applies to all RAN ships with an anti-submarine capability.

But what is specifically an FFG role is over-the-horizon targeting, with the helo providing the long-distance ‘eyes’ of the ships’ Harpoon missile system.

A fully-compatible helo for the Harpoon system is fitted with an accurate navigation system, radar, electronic surveillance equipment and also a missile-firing capability. The Bell has none of these. But as the officer-in-charge of the Stalwart flight, Lieutenant Commander Llewellyn (he was promoted during the deployment) says, ‘You have to start somewhere. ‘

Helicopters play a vital role in over-the-horizon targeting in two ways. If the ship picks up a radar contact the helo may be scrambled to fly out to identify whether the target is friend or foe. Or it can simply be sent on surface surveillance, as was the case during Sea Eagle.

Lieutenant Commander Llewellyn explains, ‘We were on the goodies’ side and were facing an opposed transit.

The baddies were out there listening via electronic surveillance for anything the ships may have transmitted.

The FFGs went for only minimum transmission and sent the helo out ahead to make sure the way was clear.

Whether a target is initially picked up by radar or by surface surveillance, the method of ship-helo missile firing remains the same. With a fully equipped helicopter, the target’s range and bearing are fed from the helo back to the ship’s Harpoon missile computer. However, a helicopter that doesn’t have accurate navigation and radar must be kept on the ship’s radar to determine a precise target fix. In doing so the ship may become vulnerable to attack as the enemy can fire a missile down the radar bearing.

Given its limited capabilities, the Bell has been used to prime the FFG men for the day when upgraded helicopters are acquired for the Navy.

‘What we have been doing is very basic,’ Lieutenant Commander Llewellyn said.

‘But it gets the ships used to working with a helo, even though the helo is not capable of doing much. ‘

French-built Squirrel helicopters are being delivered to the Navy as a training and utility helo. It will have an accurate navigation system allowing a better determination of its own position and ultimately a more accurate target fix than the Bell.

A decision on a fully-compatible helo for the FFGs is yet to be made.

The training of anti-submarine aircraft controllers is necessary for the RAN’s FFGs, Guided Missile Destroyers (DDGs) and Destroyer Escorts (DEs).

The controllers are the interface between the ship and the helicopter. They coordinate information from aircraft radar and sonar and ship’s sensors to determine an enemy submarine’s location. When this has been pinpointed an anti-submarine weapon can be fired. These skills between surface and airborne units are sharpened during CASEX serials . . . combined anti-submarine exercises.

Lieutenant Commander Llewellyn said the RAN’s fully swept up anti-submarine helicopters were the Sea Kings. But without an aircraft carrier, the RAN cannot carry Sea Kings to sea and a substitute must be found. Enter the Bell.

‘We have to keep the controllers to speed until we get another ship for the Sea Kings,’ he said.

Air search for submarines is mandatory for ship protection. It augments the ship’s range and capability. If a submarine gets within a ship’s sonar range it is well within the sub’s torpedo firing range.

A helicopter’s sonar can extend a ship’s anti-submarine net and when combined with anti-submarine fixed-wing aircraft, like the Fleet Air Arm’s Trackers, the net can extend to 100 miles or more in radius.

The Trackers are to be phased out of the RAN by mid-year 1984 and the RAAF will adopt further anti-submarine roles.

But the ship’s anti-submarine aircraft controllers still need the expertise of co-ordinating the attack. The Bell 206 has been giving them this, simulating the Sea King.

In its workhorse role,’ the Bell has been transferring people and stores. Lieutenant Commander Llewellyn says transfer by helo is more efficient than the alternative: transfer by jackstay – a system of heavy ropes and pulleys slung between ships as they sail in close formation.

“Hello transfer involves about one-quarter the number of people that a jackstay does,’ he said.

“It also allows greater flexibility for the ships to manoeuvre. ”

A regular passenger on this deployment was a Fleet chaplain, with the serial transferring him named ‘holy hell. Many Officers and Sailors found themselves at the end of a winch of landing On a flight deck during the deployment for a variety of reasons. For one sailor it could have been a life-saving transfer. He had to be evacuated from his ship for surgery aboard HMAS Stalwart. His injury would have precluded a jackstay.

Lieutenant Commander Llewellyn says the same advantages, and more, apply when transferring stores.

‘The jackstay system in use in the RAN is a light system which can carry a maximum load of about 500 lb,’ he said.

‘We can lift 1500 lb.’

Such a facility enhances Stalwart’s role as a destroyer tender. Any ships in company that need repair of heavy equipment get it flown out by helo to Stalwart’s workshops. There it is repaired and then returned. The alternative is to wait until the next port, leaving the ship without an operational piece of equipment.

A final role for the helo has been to help the gunnery men aboard the task group ships to get some shootin’ practice.

The helo team had airborne control of a radio-controlled surface target. The target is a speed boat fitted with a transponder. When a ship’s radar signal hits it, the transponder returns a stronger signal giving an image of a ship any size between a patrol boat and a frigate.

With bearing and range locked in, the shooting ships open fire as the helo flies above, staying out of the firing arc and driving the boat about.

The Bell’s final flight was a 55-minute run from Sydney Harbour to its Nowra home. Behind it were 264 deck landings, a deployment that covered more than 19,000 miles and a ‘birdie’s’ satisfaction that the ships on deployment had air support.

The pilots: Lieutenant Commander Jim Llewellyn lives in Nowra with his wife and children. He has 14 years of service to the RAN behind him, including more than 3300 hours of flying and over 500 deck landings.

Sub Lieutenant Ian Sangston joined the RAN four and a half years ago. Has 1200 hours flying behind him and clocked up 121 deck landings this deployment. A Perth native, Ian now lives in Nowra with his wife.

The helicopter: Detached from HC723 Squadron, HMAS Albatross, the Naval Air Station, Nowra.