INTEGRATION
EX CHINTHE RISE ABOARD HMS PRINCE OF WALES During Jun 21, 656 Squadron AAC embarked three Apache AH1 aboard HMS Prince of Wales (PWLS).
T
he aim was to sustain and develop a very high readiness maritime capability. The Squadron joined the ship alongside the Princess Royal jetty in Portsmouth, with a flight deck the size of three football pitches, the vessel dwarfed everything else in the harbour. Many scoffed “how hard can it be to land on that?” As it turned out, landing was the easy part! There are numerous other challenges to overcome when integrating Attack Aviation into a new warship. Soon after, HMS PWLS sailed into the Southwest Approaches for sea trials and operational workups. Apart from a few weeks in the North Sea in the
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previous two weeks, this was the first time the ship had been at sea for over a year. Once out of the harbour she went straight into training under the direction of Fleet Operational Sea Training (FOST), the seafaring equivalent of Army Aviation Standards. This included live Phalanx firing, emergency handling, damage control exercises, surface warfare scenarios and everything else required of an operational warship. Throughout the exercise 26% of planned aviation sorties were cancelled due to ship maintenance or FOST serials. Maritime aviation isn’t as simple as it looks! It took time to learn how to navigate a 280-metre-long,
70-metre-wide, with more than five decks, aircraft carrier without getting lost. 656 were, in an irony not missed by an Army squadron, the first aviation unit ever to embark aboard the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier. Moreover, most of the ship’s company were junior sailors who had also never been to sea before on a Queen Elizabeth Class ship. It wasn’t just the Army who were scrambling to find their sea legs and ‘Jackspeak’ handbook in the first few days! Warship training requirements left precious flying windows outside of sea trials. In addition, HMS PWLS was also tasked to be the UK flagship for the G7 conference in Cornwall.
As part of the event, the ship hosted The First Sea Lord, foreign diplomats and even provided a ‘sail past’ for US President, Joe Biden, and UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. To launch aviation at sea, a Ship Helicopter Operating Limit (SHOL) is required. A SHOL is a heading into wind, above a minimum speed, that gives enough performance for a helicopter to take off safely.
