I was lucky to attend the final 'Wings Parade' of 848 Naval Air Squadron at Yeovilton yesterday.
Rear Admiral Russ Harding was guest of honour and during his address to the service personnel and guests he stated that the day before (Wednesday) the contract to marinise the Merlin HC 3/3A had finally been signed.
846NAS is already at RAF Benson and when they return to Yeovilton 845 will move to Benson to fully convert to Merlin. This will leave 848, who will 'Stand up' after 'Standing down' yesterday, as the sole Junglie Sea King operator until it retires from service.
Chatting to some people I know at the ceremony, they did say that they did not think all the Merlins would move to Yeovilton as there is not enough room!
To be honest I find this hard to believe as there is nowhere near as many airframes based at Yeovilton as there used to be back in the 80's; Sea Harrier, Hunter, Canberra, Sea King, Wessex, Lynx (Navy and Marine) plus station flight Sea Heron and Heron as well as the aircraft of the RNHF!
According to my records there was a point in the early/mid 80's when around 160-170 aircraft were home based there.
Today there is around 25 Lynx HMA8 of 702 and 815, around 16 Sea King HC IV, 4 Grob Tutor of 727NAS and when they come back from Culdrose 2 to 4 Hawks of 736NAS. There is also the growing number of AAC and RN AgustaWestland Wildcats which will reach a total number of 62 airframes.
So, in the future there will be around 95 aircraft based at Yeovilton.
Sorry for that ramble...