24 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2008
Continued from page 23 “You have to manage your fuel and time -25˚C
marina
The Falcon grows bigger and bigger until the
meticulously – the ship has more going on than just have
fuselage all but fi lls the screen.
flying, so you’re given a specific time to land which upo
The director turns to the Principal Warfare
you have to hit to the second.” So
Officer: “Forward assess kill.” The Falcon
Too little fuel and you won’t make it back. Too a go
is dead.
much fuel and you’ll be too heavy to land. Lt G
Of course, it isn’t really. It continues
“When you do finally make it alongside, you welc
on its path – but as it turns away,
don’t have long to stabilise, move across the deck
Goalkeeper loses interest. It
and land, normally with the remaining jets stacking
decides the aircraft is no longer a
up behind you, as well as lots of people watching
threat and goes to sleep.
– camera crews, photographers and the ship’s
In the ops room, it’s all rather
captain. So, no pressure then...” Lt Bouyac added. T
clinical. The conversation is
It’s not just the pilots under pressure. With a dep
terse and perfunctory. The
demanding sortie rate to maintain, the Strike Wing’s Th
cameras zoom in on their
engineers have been working around the clock. Si
prey. The director makes his
“For everyone working on the deck, there are the
assessment.
many more safety issues than when working on a Flyin
Top side, Goalkeeper is an
land base,” said Lt Cdr Jon Milsom, the wing’s Air 81
entirely different kettle of fi sh.
Engineer Officer. on t
It’s like a manic children’s toy,
“There is a lot of activity and everyone has to be Th
nodding, swivelling, its barrel
vigilant, 100 per cent of the time. are
lifting up and down frantically as
“There are lots of people doing important tasks hom
it tracks the incoming aircraft.
simultaneously around jets with engines running. In
And then, threat gone, it goes
“If the groundcrew allow the pilot to do his engine foun
back to sleep rather like Bagpuss.
checks at the wrong time, someone could get An
blown over the side of the ship. Cdr
“Safety is paramount, especially as this is the first “W
I
n days of yore, ‘Bagpuss’ wouldn’t
have been woken; Lusty’s Sea
time at sea for half of our engineers, so everyone as
Harriers would have swept the foes
has been working hard to achieve this.” prop
from the skies.
AET Jason ‘Archie’ Gemmell falls into the half just
Those days are gone. The carrier’s Harriers
who have not been to sea before. whe
these days have a largely offensive role.
“There are many people in the same boat – Roy
The Naval Strike Wing had barely returned
inexperienced in life at sea. Once you’ve got into “It
to Rutland after four and a half months in
the ship’s routine, it’s not bad. And there’s some to o
Kandahar when they roared across Europe
enjoyment to be had – sundowners for example,” good
and the Arabian Peninsula to join Illustrious
he said. carr
off Oman.
“It’s actually been more fun than I expected. 81
Four jets, seven pilots and 60 engineers
There are fewer luxuries than in Afghanistan and muc
and technicans have embarked on the
you get less time to yourself, so some of the lads activ
carrier for Orion.
prefer it there.” B
The key aim has been to introduce – or
AET Phil Palmer, who’s served with Harriers at sea off
re-introduce – the wing to its traditional role:
and in Kandahar, added: “What you fi nd on a ship nece
operating from a carrier.
is that everything is much more time consuming. If to c
There’s one fundamental underpinning
you want to work on it in the hangar, you’ve got to So
everything the Strike Wing does on
move it off the deck, lower it on the lift, then shift subm
Lusty; whatever it can do at Kandahar
it off the lift and fi nally start work.” “T
or Cottesmore, it must be able to
Veteran or rookie, Cdr Seymour is midg
achieve from a carrier as well.
delighted with the way his men have expl
It’s been 12 months since the
responded to the challenges of life at O
Strike Wing was last at sea; it
sea after a year ashore. Nim
will be 12 or so months before it’s
“A key part of this deployment is naval cruc
back at sea again, so it’s vital that
ethos, getting into the ship’s routine used
man and machine squeeze as much
and the like again. That’s something Its
as possible from this whirlwind spell
which the guys are not used to. boat
aboard Illustrious.
“What is really pleasing is watching the of la
“For me, it’s like riding a bike – I’ve done
young AETs develop – there’s a really great off G
more than 300 deck landings,” said Cdr Kev
quality among the guys coming through the “E
Seymour, Naval Strike Wing Commanding Offi cer.
system and that’s particularly rewarding. warf
“For some of the pilots who’ve done 20 or 30
“It’s good for the ship, it’s good for the If yo
landings, then they can suffer ‘skills fade’.
squadron.” adde
“The good thing is that you get back into the
The Strike Wing fl ew more than 300 missions Su
swing of it very very quickly.”
during its recent tour of duty in Afghanistan – the
Pilot Lt Dave Bouyac is among
supporting Allied ground forces. M
those ‘getting back into the
“The idea was to use the jets’ sheer presence as the w
swing’.
a deterrence,” explained Lt Mike Gray of the wing’s If
“The flying has
staff. “If that succeeded, then we were delighted. Nava
been tough but,
“Our job is not to kill people. Our job is to help beni
equally, very
the Afghans rebuild their country. Weapons are our Th
rewarding,”
last resort, but if we do need to call upon them then a lu
he said.
it’s to get our guys out of trouble and we are very were
effective at using them.” Som
The fl iers called upon their ‘last resort’ on at least “W
a dozen occasions. merc
The pilots were not the only men in the wing in of it
the line of fire, however. “If
“Kandahar is not a benign environment – it Horm
suffers from rocket attacks,” said Lt Gray. trad
It also suffers from extremes of temperature: Cd
temperatures by day reached 35˚C at their peak, lawl
but during the depths of winter they plummetted to unus
-15˚C. Add the wind chill factor and it was closer to have
023-026_NN_May.indd 2 21/4/08 10:13:55
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