Wildcat
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Wg13-
In response it's not about securing jobs its about capability and lift. Whilst the Wildcat with all its sensors (if funded and fitted) is very capable, it doesn't have the lift cpability that the Puma 2 will have. As for being armed and sea-going a number of countries do use the ac in this role so that is an extremely weak attack.
However if the Puma is cut over the wildcat, I wonder if it would be to secure the future of the AAC.
Ultimately I hope we get both ac types as politically cutting helicopters whilst still commited overseas would not be a wise idea.
In response it's not about securing jobs its about capability and lift. Whilst the Wildcat with all its sensors (if funded and fitted) is very capable, it doesn't have the lift cpability that the Puma 2 will have. As for being armed and sea-going a number of countries do use the ac in this role so that is an extremely weak attack.
However if the Puma is cut over the wildcat, I wonder if it would be to secure the future of the AAC.
Ultimately I hope we get both ac types as politically cutting helicopters whilst still commited overseas would not be a wise idea.
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Wildcat has all expected sensors already funded and part of the delivery build standard. There are elements such as TDL for HMA that need to be bought back having been sacrificed to make the programme affordable.
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It will be interesting to see how long it take the AAC to realise they need the capability of the naval variant (ie ISAR radar and weapons)....not long I suspect once they start operating alongside each other at Yeovilton.
If there has to be a choice between Wildcat and Puma I suspect Puma will be chopped (that sort of lift can be bought off the shelf or supplied by the Europeans).
If there has to be a choice between Wildcat and Puma I suspect Puma will be chopped (that sort of lift can be bought off the shelf or supplied by the Europeans).
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PTT,
Post Afgh Puma will become a relatively marginal capability, not suited to expeditionary ops. To qualify this I suspect that, given the extended length of the recession, expeditionary in the eyes of the Coalition Govt will become "does it go on a ship?". Defence will be all about "poise" but clear of political commitment - what the navy has done for centuries.
Post Afgh Puma will become a relatively marginal capability, not suited to expeditionary ops. To qualify this I suspect that, given the extended length of the recession, expeditionary in the eyes of the Coalition Govt will become "does it go on a ship?". Defence will be all about "poise" but clear of political commitment - what the navy has done for centuries.
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Nice self-serving redefinition of "expeditionary" there, Bismark. Meanwhile, back in the real world, it still means what it has always meant, and Puma + C17 can deploy more rotary lift farther and faster than anything else. Shorn of your own assumption of the nature of future ops, Puma delivers more.
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Post selling your souls to keep the carriers how many Wildcats do Fleet really need or to put it the other way how many decks will be left that only take Wildcat?
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Nice self-serving redefinition of "expeditionary" there, Bismark. Meanwhile, back in the real world, it still means what it has always meant, and Puma + C17 can deploy more rotary lift farther and faster than anything else.
"Expeditionary" will mean anything the Govt decides and in such a cash constrained country it will be "does it go on a ship". Please tell me how many C17s are required to lift a CVF/LPH/LPD/+supporting decks worth of FW and Rotary, including support - presumably at the same time they are trying to moves sqns of Typhoon and Tornado, ammunition, JFHQ, StratCom, Field hosp, Challenger etc etc....dream on.
Post selling your souls to keep the carriers how many Wildcats do Fleet really need
Wildcat roars into Portsmouth for the first time
The Navy’s next-generation helicopter has made its debut on the back of a frigate.
A prototype Wildcat – a 21st Century re-invention of the Fleet Air Arm’s trusted Lynx – landed aboard HMS Iron Duke in Portsmouth Harbour for three days of trials.
Pictures: LA(Phot) Gary Weatherston
BEING guided down on to the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke, this is the first appearance of the Fleet Air Arm’s next-generation helicopter on the back of a Royal Navy warship.
On a very wet December day, a Wildcat landed aboard the frigate in Portsmouth Harbour for three days of trials in and out of the ship’s harbour.
In just three years’ time, the fast and potent helicopter will be the backbone of the Royal Navy’s frigate and destroyer operations around the globe, replacing the trusted Lynx which has served the Fleet Air Arm loyally since the mid-70s.
There are extensive trials and tests which must be conducted before the Wildcat is declared operational. It might look like a Lynx (with the exception of the distinctive tailplane which provides the pilot with improved stability) and fly like a Lynx, but there the similarities end; it’s effectively a brand new aircraft rather than a revamp of the existing helicopter.
And as it’s a brand new aircraft, the Wildcat has to go back to basics, laying down the limits within which it can be operated at sea.
To that end the helicopter will join Iron Duke again next month for three weeks of flying on to and off the deck of the Type 23 frigate.
Before there can be any thought of such trials, however, the Wildcat team – from Agusta-Westland, the Yeovil firm which builds the Lynx, MoD experts, the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Centre at Boscombe Down, RN air engineers and technicians – needed to carry out some fundamental checks, hence three days aboard Iron Duke this week.
Although numerous simulations have been carried out, nothing compensates for doing something for real.
It fell to ex-Fleet Air Arm pilot Martin Dawkins and Lt Cdr Lee Evans from the Rotary Wing Test Squadron to set Wildcat down on the back of Iron Duke – for aviation enthusiasts the model being tested is Trials Installation 3, tail number ZZ402.
As well as landing on the frigate, the team needed to ensure Wildcat could be moved in and out of the hangar using the ship’s helicopter recovery system and (quite importantly) fit in the hangar (it does with a couple of metres to spare), can be refuelled, and can be armed.
All of the above can be done without putting to sea – and will save valuable time when the more rigorous flight tests are carried out next month – known as Ship Helicopter Operating Limits trials.
So far the Wildcat team are impressed by the helicopter’s performance.
“It flies like a Lynx which is good from a pilot’s point of view. It’s stable, it’s got one third more power than a Lynx and that gives you much more confidence as a pilot,” explained Lt Cdr Evans.
The helicopter has already completed ‘hot and high’ trials in Colorado in the USA and has flown on to and off RFA Argus at sea.
For the next series of trials at sea with Iron Duke, the team will gradually increase the weight/payload – including attaching dummy torpedoes – of Wildcat in different sea, wind and temperature conditions. They will also test the helicopter’s ability to communicate and share data with the ship’s operations room team and command systems
There will be 31 people aboard Iron Duke, plus special instrumentation, to assess how Wildcat performs – and the mass of data and readings they record will take around nine months to analyse. “The science going into the trials is amazing,” Lt Cdr Evans enthuses. He’s also looking forward to taking Wildcat to sea in earnest.
“I love this job. It is demanding being a test pilot – you have to keep your eye on the ball. But to be the first test pilot to fly Wildcat at sea is beyond my wildest dreams. Awesome.”
Some 62 Wildcats are being bought by the MOD, 34 for the Army Air Corps, 28 for the Fleet Air Arm. The Army variant is due to begin operations in 2014, with the Naval one in service the following year.
From Navy News
http://www.navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/3131
A prototype Wildcat – a 21st Century re-invention of the Fleet Air Arm’s trusted Lynx – landed aboard HMS Iron Duke in Portsmouth Harbour for three days of trials.
Pictures: LA(Phot) Gary Weatherston
BEING guided down on to the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke, this is the first appearance of the Fleet Air Arm’s next-generation helicopter on the back of a Royal Navy warship.
On a very wet December day, a Wildcat landed aboard the frigate in Portsmouth Harbour for three days of trials in and out of the ship’s harbour.
In just three years’ time, the fast and potent helicopter will be the backbone of the Royal Navy’s frigate and destroyer operations around the globe, replacing the trusted Lynx which has served the Fleet Air Arm loyally since the mid-70s.
There are extensive trials and tests which must be conducted before the Wildcat is declared operational. It might look like a Lynx (with the exception of the distinctive tailplane which provides the pilot with improved stability) and fly like a Lynx, but there the similarities end; it’s effectively a brand new aircraft rather than a revamp of the existing helicopter.
And as it’s a brand new aircraft, the Wildcat has to go back to basics, laying down the limits within which it can be operated at sea.
To that end the helicopter will join Iron Duke again next month for three weeks of flying on to and off the deck of the Type 23 frigate.
Before there can be any thought of such trials, however, the Wildcat team – from Agusta-Westland, the Yeovil firm which builds the Lynx, MoD experts, the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Centre at Boscombe Down, RN air engineers and technicians – needed to carry out some fundamental checks, hence three days aboard Iron Duke this week.
Although numerous simulations have been carried out, nothing compensates for doing something for real.
It fell to ex-Fleet Air Arm pilot Martin Dawkins and Lt Cdr Lee Evans from the Rotary Wing Test Squadron to set Wildcat down on the back of Iron Duke – for aviation enthusiasts the model being tested is Trials Installation 3, tail number ZZ402.
As well as landing on the frigate, the team needed to ensure Wildcat could be moved in and out of the hangar using the ship’s helicopter recovery system and (quite importantly) fit in the hangar (it does with a couple of metres to spare), can be refuelled, and can be armed.
All of the above can be done without putting to sea – and will save valuable time when the more rigorous flight tests are carried out next month – known as Ship Helicopter Operating Limits trials.
So far the Wildcat team are impressed by the helicopter’s performance.
“It flies like a Lynx which is good from a pilot’s point of view. It’s stable, it’s got one third more power than a Lynx and that gives you much more confidence as a pilot,” explained Lt Cdr Evans.
The helicopter has already completed ‘hot and high’ trials in Colorado in the USA and has flown on to and off RFA Argus at sea.
For the next series of trials at sea with Iron Duke, the team will gradually increase the weight/payload – including attaching dummy torpedoes – of Wildcat in different sea, wind and temperature conditions. They will also test the helicopter’s ability to communicate and share data with the ship’s operations room team and command systems
There will be 31 people aboard Iron Duke, plus special instrumentation, to assess how Wildcat performs – and the mass of data and readings they record will take around nine months to analyse. “The science going into the trials is amazing,” Lt Cdr Evans enthuses. He’s also looking forward to taking Wildcat to sea in earnest.
“I love this job. It is demanding being a test pilot – you have to keep your eye on the ball. But to be the first test pilot to fly Wildcat at sea is beyond my wildest dreams. Awesome.”
Some 62 Wildcats are being bought by the MOD, 34 for the Army Air Corps, 28 for the Fleet Air Arm. The Army variant is due to begin operations in 2014, with the Naval one in service the following year.
From Navy News
http://www.navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/3131
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Bismark
Yes, clearly.
Bolleaux. That's your self-serving definition again.
PTT,
"Expeditionary" will mean anything the Govt decides
"Expeditionary" will mean anything the Govt decides
and in such a cash constrained country it will be "does it go on a ship".
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any truth in the rumour that WA are working on a cheap ultra-quiet version for police and observation work which uses the NOTAR technology from the Hughes 500?
Allegedly to be called the Bobcat?
Allegedly to be called the Bobcat?
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That's your self-serving definition again.
...except that I have heard it mentioned in political circles several times in the last couple of months. This government have no appetite to forward base forces on land during an "influence" campaign.
Accept it.