What happens to the Ships Flight a/c when said ship is mothballed

[Razor61]

I See today the Government according to Janes Defence are considering mothballing yet more RN warships aswell as a couple of big RFA's. To say the least, we won't have anymore ships left at all at this rate by 2008.

Under consideration are two Type 42 DDG and All of the Type 22 FFG in service and Endurance. (Aswell as three other RFA, Oakleaf, Bramble Leaf and Bedivere).

I understand that each DDG and FFG either operate two Lynx each.
Thats up to 14 Lynx (2 Lynx HAS3ICE included from Endurance) which will be without a ship to embark on.

Do the Lynx now get put into storage or used for spares or just rotated around the Squadrons?

[vecvechookattack]

Gawd....How I wish... No shipmate....if you were serving on a ships flight where the ship was unfortunate to be mothballed then before you can unzip yer goonbag you will find you suddenly belong to another ship which didn't have a flight. The days of each ship having its own flight are (were) long gone.... In fact I dont think that the Lynx fleet have ever been cap tallied to a particular ship.

[dougiedubh]

Shocked to see HMS Endurance to be mothballed. 1982 springs to mind.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - Santayana
"What experience and history teach is this - that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it" - Hegel
"Unless we learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. This is no longer merely an academic exercise, but may contain our worlds fate and our destiny" - Alex Haley

[Mr-AEO]

Shocked to see HMS Endurance to be mothballed.

Likewise albeit for a different reason. Wasn't this ship used in support of the Antartic Survey Expedition which amongst other things was looking into the effects of global warming whilst, as a sideline, identifying nice little oil seams.

Considering the governements new 'green' push, the withdrawal of this support seems out of kilter.

Back to ships flights numbers - anyone from 815 got the latest numbers of flights available? (don't think this is a state secret)

[airborne_artist]

Mr AEO - BAS operates two vessels (http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Transport/Ships/index.html), and there is considerable liaison between Endurance and BAS, but she's not tasked to support BAS. She has her own schedule of surveying and flag flying in the South Atlantic and Antarctic Peninsula.

[Razor61]

According to Janes Defence:-
Decisions to be taken by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in early 2007
will determine whether a number of UK Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Fleet
Auxiliary (RFA) vessels are withdrawn from frontline operations and
placed in deep reserve.

The MoD insists that "no decisions have been taken" on reducing the
readiness level of selected RN and RFA ships. However, Jane’s
understands that several options are being run by the MoD, as part of
its biennial planning round, to assess the extent of the savings that
could be realised by placing selected ships at extended readiness.

The measures, if implemented, would take the operational fleet
substantially below the levels laid down in the government's 2004
defence White Paper. They could also signal the effective retirement of
a number of RN ships with relatively limited lifespan remaining.

----

I think 815NAS has a number of around 25 or so Lynx HAS3/HMA8 to its disposal for the ships flights?

[Mr-AEO]

Mr AEO - BAS operates two vessels (http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Transport/Ships/index.html), and there is considerable liaison between Endurance and BAS, but she's not tasked to support BAS. She has her own schedule of surveying and flag flying in the South Atlantic and Antarctic Peninsula.


I see - thank you.

But it still represents a 50% cut ;)

25 flights then - and today we have how many fully manned and ready to go??......10? 12?

[airborne_artist]

MR AEO - don't get me wrong, the loss of Endurance is dire. My old man was the last Captain of Endurance ashore before the FIs were invaded in 82. He and I were wallpapering a ceiling in late Jan of 82 when the duty Cdr at Northwood rang up and told him about the landings on S Georgia. He then had the worrying duty of recommending that my unit went down there. How many Dads have committed their sons to battle? As it happened things moved on and we stayed in the UK.

[Mr-AEO]

:ooh: That is an unusual situation.

the only battle my old man committed me to was with the lawnmower!

[d192049d]

vecvechookattack, having been a member of a ships flight, HMS Newcastle, I can confirm that we were permanently asigned to the Ship and Newcastle was on the head instead of Osprey.

[vecvechookattack]

Totally agree...but you were not drafted / apponited to HMS Newcastle...you were drated / appointed to 815 Sqdn, 20? flight. Cap tallied doesn't mean you were wearing the cap tally of ther particular flight...it means the flight were permanently allocated to that ship. Cap Tallying hasn't happened since the Wasp days when flights were cap tallied to their ship and where ever the ship went the flight went with it. If their ship was in refit for 2 years then the flight were disembarked for 2 years. Now wouldn't that be a nice thing today

Mr AEO..... 25 flights = 25 flights ready. If Fleet wanted 25 DD/FF at sea tomorrow then the LHF would provide 25 flights tomorrow... all to do with supply and demand.

[Razor61]

Sorry to sound even more dumb than to start with,
so i assume the stencil names of the ships on the nose of each Lynx is just swapped around then and each lynx isnt kept for that particular ship even when in refit.

[vecvechookattack]

Absolutely correct. The nose cones (and tails) are either repainted or replaced. It is extremely rare (almost unheard of) for a flight to be able to maintain the same aircraft for any length of time.