Think I've seen this asked before and someone posted this link:
Swansea Airport..Gazelle ,hawk and a Herk!!! ? FighterControl ? Home to the Military Aviation Enthusiast
palace_ops wrote:
Sorry for the delayed post on this....that Gazelle is one of two usually assigned to 8Flt based at Credenhill for the SF guys. Its used for surveillance ops ...the Wescam MX15 FLIR is the give-away. I assume there was a training exercise that day/days in and around Swansea?
The Gazelles are from JHC Aldergrove and are from 5 Regiment (the callsigns give them away using AAC500 series callsigns) and are always tasked with supporting the large scale army/marine exercises on Salisbury Plain as two of these Gazelles are, routing from Aldergrove to Salisbury Plain via Swansea for fuel.
Nothing to do with 8 flight.
The MX15 is now fitted to not only the Gazelles but also the Lynx AH7 and AH9 at Dishforth. Of which both MX15 types support the exercises for ISTAR purposes. The Gazelle hovers or orbits between 2000ft and 5000ft picking out targets and movements.