The Royal Navy Lynx Read online

  The Royal Navy Lynx

  1982, The author (right) with Flight Commander Bob McKellar and CPO Tug Wilson, plus Lynx Mark 2, XZ 722 ‘ARFA’, heading south from Ascension Island to join the Task Force. (Author)

  The Royal Navy Lynx

  An Operational History

  Larry Jeram-Croft

  First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

  Pen & Sword Aviation

  an imprint of

  Pen & Sword Books Ltd

  47 Church Street

  Barnsley

  South Yorkshire

  S70 2AS

  Copyright © Larry Jeram-Croft 2017

  ISBN 978 1 47386 251 7

  eISBN 978 1 47386 253 1

  Mobi ISBN 978 1 47386 252 4

  The right of Larry Jeram-Croft to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

  Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History, History, Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Transport, True Crime, and Fiction, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper, Praetorian Press, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.

  For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

  PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

  47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

  E-mail: [email protected]

  Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

  The views and opinions expressed are those of the author alone and should not be taken to represent those of Her Majesty’s Government, MOD, HM Armed Forces or any government agency

  Contents

  Foreword

  Author Profile

  Acknowledgements and Thanks

  Introduction

  Chapter 1 The Military Need

  Chapter 2 Design and Development

  Chapter 3 The Lynx HAS Mark 2 – The Early Days

  Chapter 4 The Falklands War

  Chapter 5 The Lynx HAS Mark 3 – Beefing Things Up

  Chapter 6 The Gulf – 1980 to the Present Day

  Chapter 7 The Lynx HMA Mark 8 – the Final Version

  Chapter 8 There But For the Grace of God Go I …

  Chapter 9 Rescue

  Chapter 10 Around the World

  Chapter 11 The Author’s Story

  Appendix I: Glossary of Terms

  Appendix II: Naval Lynx Variants – Performance Specifications

  Appendix III: A Dummies Guide to Flying a Helicopter

  Foreword

  I am delighted to introduce this book written by Larry Jeram Croft. The Lynx Helicopter has a long and illustrious history within the Royal Navy, as is demonstrated by its outstanding operational record.

  Reading this book I am reminded of the flexibility of the aircraft as it has covered a much wider range of roles and capabilities than it was originally designed for. I was fortunate to fly the aircraft during my Service career as a Flight Pilot, Flight Commander and as Senior Pilot of 815 Naval Air Squadron and therefore experienced first-hand its strength, reliability and effectiveness.

  In recording and celebrating the invaluable work of the Lynx aircraft, I am certain that this book will be an inspiration for the next generation of pilots as well as ensuring its proud place in Naval Aviation history.

  HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York, KG, GCVO, CD, ADC

  As I moved from the venerable Wasp HAS Mk 1 (just why would anyone fly a Mk1 anything?) to the Lynx HAS Mk3, my aviation world suddenly looked very much more comfortable. Having all that Lynx power and speed was an extraordinarily step up the ladder of capability. And it had doors. And the spare engine definitely helped, so I very gradually weaned myself off waiting for the undemanded downwind engine-off at 400’ at night over the sea…

  My modest (nearly) 500 hours was a sheer pleasure, even if Larry is right, and the Lynx did rattle and leak a bit. But, compared to almost everything else we flew, it was a dream. Though we lost good friends in accidents, and we will never forget them, it never let me down. I’m grateful for that.

  This is a wonderfully full record of the venerable contribution of the Lynx, and I’m delighted Larry has had the time to pull it off. Delve and enjoy!

  Admiral Sir George Zambellas, GCB, DSC, DL FRAeS

  Author Profile

  Larry Jeram-Croft spent thirty years in the Royal Navy. He trained as an aircraft engineer and then as a helicopter pilot. He was awarded a Queen’s Commendation for search and rescue duties and flew the Lynx off HMS Andromeda during the Falklands War. Retiring from the Royal Navy in 2000 as a Commander, he worked in industry for seven years before retiring for a second time. He then bought a yacht and lived in the Caribbean with Fiona, his wife, before returning to the UK to write books. He now lives in Somerset, where apart from writing he continues to fail to hit a golf ball with any skill whatsoever.

  Apart from this book, he currently has eleven novels available on Amazon. Seven of these are the ‘Jon Hunt’ series that have been described as the ‘British Top Gun’ and cover the career of a modern naval officer in current times starting from the Falklands and covering events thereafter. Based on his own military experience they are regularly praised for a degree of authenticity rarely found in military fiction.

  Acknowledgements and Thanks

  Many people have helped me produce this book. Indeed it would not have been possible without them. Individual contributors have already been given acknowledgement against their respective articles. However, I would like to thank all those who have given their time, dug out old photos, and trawled through their records to remember things that happened, in many cases quite a long time ago. Apart from those contributors, I would also like to acknowledge the particular input and help I received from the following:

  AgustaWestland Ltd:

  Dave Gibbings, Colin Hague.

  The Lynx Wildcat Maritime Force:

  Commanding Officer, Commander Louis Wilson-Challon

  The Force Warfare Officer, Lieutenant Commander Chris Yelland.

  815 Squadron:

  Commanding Officer, Commander Philip Richardson

  Senior Observer Lieutenant Commander Matt Boulind Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Alex Sims

  Air Engineer Officer, Lieutenant Commander Brett Gilliss

  Flight Commander and Heritage Officer, Lieutenant Rich Bell

  The Fleet Air Arm Museum: Barbara Gilbert

  The RN Flight Safety Centre:

  Commanding Officer, Commander Ben Franklin

  Lieutenant Commander Polly Hatchard

  AET Stuart Donovan

  Royal Navy Media Communications Staff at Whale Island for approval to use articles from the RN ‘Cockpit’ and ‘Flight Deck’ magazines.

  Finally, I would like to apologize to all those who flew this marvelous aircraft and whose stories I have not been able to include. In such a long period of time there would be far too many anyway. Hopefully, those I have chosen provide sufficient evidence as to what a fantastic machine the Lynx has been.

  Introduction

  There is a well know saying that if ‘something looks right then it probably is right’. I got my first glimpse of a Lynx on the runway at the Royal Naval Air Station at Portland in the summer of 1977 and it looked right. Up until then we had the large boxy Sea King, the rather humped Wessex, or the ungainly Wasp to choose from. This machine looked sleek, fast and modern, because it was all of those things. Two years later, when I was flying Sea Kings from HMS Hermes, another Lynx came on board. This time I was able to get a better look; and now that I was a qualified helicopter pilot myself, I could really appreciate what I was seeing. It looked even sleeker, faster, and up to date. So, it was with great delight that I was informed that my next appointment would be to 702 Squadron to learn to fly one.

  The squadron had just formed out of the Intensive Flying Trials Unit (IFTU) at RNAS Yeovilton and the atmosphere was brilliant. It was a melting pot of aircrew: Stovies (Fast Jet), Pingers (Anti-Submarine Sea Kings), Junglies (Commando Wessex 5s) and Small Ship’s Wasp Jockeys. Mix this experience up with a twin engine aircraft capable of one hundred and fifty knots, with its own radar and sea skimming anti-ship missile system as well as the ability to carry anti-submarine homing torpedoes, depth charges, or nuclear depth bombs, and we were in aviation heaven.

  I had just finished my first front line tour on Sea Kings. They were relatively lumbering and old fashioned. My first flight in a Lynx was a revelation. With a rotor head made of solid titanium, the aircraft literally handled like a fast jet. In fact, the Lynx was one the world’s first truly aerobatic helicopters. Not that we were allowed to exploit the fact (at least not officially). It was designed from the outset to cope with small ship operations. The undercarriage was so strong it hurt my back when my instructor dropped it onto the tarmac from ten feet. The hydraulic deck harpoon system meant that as soon as we were on deck we were secure; that, and the fact that you could actually reverse the pitch on the main rotor and push the thing down onto the deck with over half the power of the engines. Tactical operations were another eye opener; flying at fifty feet
over the sea, flat out, at one hundred and fifty knots, in close formation with another Lynx and then splitting off and pulling 2g to ensure that when we fired, we could put eight Sea Skua missiles, at four different skim heights, into a target from ninety degrees apart. Wow.

  Alright, it did vibrate a bit (actually rather a lot at full speed) and the engines had a nasty habit of failing after only a couple of hundred hours. Oh, and when you shut it down the ground crew had to clip little buckets to the engine exhausts to catch all the oil leaking out of the rear seals. Then there was the tail rotor that really hated the relative wind coming from the right, to the extent that you could end up with full rudder pedal and nothing happening, which could make deck landings interesting to say the least. So what? We knew all these things would be fixed in time and they were. As the Maintenance Test Pilot at Portland in later years I was able to make my contribution.

  But then, early in 1982, everything changed. Many of the ships of the fleet now had Lynx Flights and a total of eighteen ended up being deployed 8000 miles to the southern hemisphere. The Royal Navy was about to fight a war it was very definitely not designed to fight, a very long way from home and any support. The Lynx, like everything else, was pitched into the fight with very little preparation. That it performed so well is a tribute to its designers and the men who maintained and flew it. What it didn’t get – was much publicity. It didn’t operate from the two big carriers with the press on board and it didn’t fly over the land battles much. Nevertheless, its contribution was significant; from mundane tasks like delivering mail around the fleet to more glamorous missions like Naval Gunfire Support – spotting the fall of a ship’s 4.5 inch shells and inserting Special Forces troops. In the absence of any real Airborne Early Warning aircraft it was regularly sent up-threat to listen out for the telltale radar of an Argentinian Super Etendard jet which had to be turned on to launch an Exocet missile. The first sea skimming missile fired during the conflict was a Sea Skua fired by a Lynx against an Argentinian patrol boat. Many more followed, even though technically, the missile system wasn’t even accepted into service at that point. Although the submarine threat was actually quite low, there was the ever present threat of the two modern Argentinian U-boats and the Lynx flew many anti-submarine missions. When the Argentinian submarine Santa Fe was intercepted off South Georgia a Lynx was there. There were several encounters with enemy fast jets and surface-to-air missiles, but no Lynx were shot down. Several of the aircraft were fitted with active I-band jammers designed to seduce the homing head of an Exocet. The whole system had been cobbled together in weeks and proved to work against a real missile on a UK test range. These are just the headline stories about an aircraft that has never really had its praises sung. After that, a mere further thirty-five years of service has taken the aircraft to every theatre of operations. During nearly all that time there has been a Lynx deployed in the Gulf. Its performance during Operation Granby (First Gulf War) was outstanding; two aircraft effectively destroyed the Iraqi navy in just two days of attacks.

  It has sunk more enemy ships with its Sea Skua than any other naval system, dropped torpedoes, caught drug smugglers and conducted rescues all around the world. In fact, it would not be unfair to claim that it has been the most successful weapon system deployed by the Royal Navy since 1945.

  This book, based on the accounts of those who operated it, seeks to tell its story and put the record straight.

  The Author – flying his Lynx – beating up his ship. The best aircraft in the world for that particular activity! (Author)

  Chapter 1

  The Military Need

  After the end of the Second World War, military development continued apace not the least because of the continued threat from the Soviet Union. Submarines continued to increase the range from which they could attack and ships continued to increase the range they could detect the submarines from. It was a technological game of cat and mouse that continues to this day. Unfortunately, for the ships, it was soon realised that although a submarine could be detected, there was now no way of attacking it. One of the solutions was to develop a small helicopter that could operate from the tiny decks of Frigates and Destroyers and carry a weapon out to the target.

  The system became known as MATCH, (Manned Anti-Submarine, Torpedo Carrying Helicopter) and the aircraft was known as the Wasp, a development of the Scout that was being built for the Army, it had a single turbine engine and a crew of one pilot. It could also carry a crewman for secondary roles. As a first generation shipborne helicopter it was a great success and it allowed the Royal Navy to take a lead in small ships aviation.

  A Wasp landing on a Leander-class frigate. The flight deck is barely bigger than the aircraft. (WHL)

  However, the Wasp was limited. With two homing torpedoes slung underneath, it only had a few minutes endurance. Even with no weapons it struggled to fly for more than an hour. One description was that it was on a twelve mile piece of elastic around the ship. It soon became clear that a replacement would be needed. So, in the mid-60s, a replacement was planned. Given the designation WG 13, it would be twin engined and revolutionary in design. Westland helicopters were given the task of designing and developing it as part of a three aircraft production programme with the French. Westland would produce the Lynx, whilst Aerospatiale would produce the smaller Gazelle and larger Puma helicopters.

  Then, on 21 October 1967, while the aircraft’s specification was being firmed up and initial contracts were being awarded, the stakes were dramatically increased. Israel and Egypt had just fought the Six Day War and an uneasy truce was in place. The Israeli navy were operating the destroyer Eilat off the coast of Egypt. Eilat was launched in 1942 as the Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Zealous, but had subsequently been sold to Israel. Both sides disagree about what happened next. The ship was off Port Said, and according to Egyptian accounts, well inside their national waters. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, two small patrol boats left the harbour and attacked as soon as they were clear of the breakwater. From a range of about ten miles, the first patrol boat fired two P-15 ‘Termit’ missiles at the Eilat. These weapons were Soviet and known to NATO as ‘Styx’. They were designed as anti-shipping missiles with a range of fifteen miles and could be fitted to any ship from a tiny patrol boat upwards. Despite seeing the incoming missiles, turning away, and increasing speed, the Eilat was hit by both. They hit amidships, one penetrating the engine room, and the ship started to burn and sink. An hour and half later, another patrol boat fired two more missiles. One malfunctioned, but the other hit the sinking ship’s stern and finished her off: fiftyseven men died and ninety-one were wounded.

  The incident sent shock waves around the world’s navies. The Eilat may not have been the most modern warship around, but the fact that a tiny patrol boat could inflict so much damage simply by slipping its lines and pointing its nose out of harbour was something to which there was very little defence. The only weapon in the Fleet Air Arm helicopter inventory at the time was the AS12 short-range, wire-guided missile fired from the Wasp and it had neither the range nor the accuracy to take on this sort of threat. Something had to be done. One of the solutions the Royal Navy decided upon was to arm its new helicopter with a credible missile system that would be able to attack up to a Corvette sized target from outside their own defences. The Lynx would get CL 834, later named Sea Skua, a radar homing, sea skimming missile, with a range of over nine miles. Not only would the Lynx be used in the anti-submarine role like the Wasp, it would now have a credible attack role of its own.

  Chapter 2