Originally Posted by
JENKINS
Interesting photograph in Telegraph of sailors on deck of carrier as, I imagine, she finally left Portsmouth with a full deck. Barely a second required for assessment of photograph.
Six Merlin HM2 (820 NAS) and Two Merlin HC4.
In the old days, the
Invincible class CVS normally operated nine ASW Sea Kings, but one of these was kept at readiness for SAR, and they also had to do things like VERTREP. After 2000, the Sea Kings were replaced by Merlins, with a Sea King doing utility and SAR tasks. These days many of the SAR and utility taskings can be done by embarked Jungly HC4s, leaving the Merlin HM2 to concentrate on ASW. It has a greater range and endurance (five hours) than the old Sea King (about four hours) or indeed other current ASW helicopter types such as the MH-60R or the NH90.
Additionally the carrier will direct the helicopters carried by other task group ships - including more Merlins.
These two snippets from a recent discussion with the Commons' committee may interest you: