This week, RFA Mounts Bay has been providing support to 814 and 815 Naval Air Squadrons with day and night procedural flying exercises.
The aim of these exercises is to ensure that the pilots are trained and proficient in executing a range of air operations in different conditions, both during the day and at night.
PREPARE FOR FLYING, PREPARE FOR FLYING.
This week, #RFAMountsBay has been supporting 814 and 815NAS's with day and night procedural flying exercises.@URNUYorkshire @RFAHeadquarters #rfa #flying #royalnavy #merlin #wildcat #takeoff #hifr #dusk pic.twitter.com/inOMVbZgVD
— RFA Mounts Bay (@RFAMountsBay) February 10, 2023
The support provided by Mounts Bay helps to enhance the readiness and capability of the 814 and 815 Naval Air Squadrons, and provides valuable opportunities for the pilots to further develop their skills and knowledge.
The bays are such useful ships is was real idiocy to flog a practically new one after the 2010 defence review. Pure incompetence to be honest…
A critism that holds for most of the review.
Very true, so much capability lost when the world was actually turning into a far more unstable and risky place. You could sort of understand the peace dividend thinking of the 1990s and early 2000s. But by 2010 they knew it was all starting the get more geopolitically unstable and took the risk anyway.
All down to Cameron and Osbourne falling to understand anything, defence, Brexit, energy security and it has now all come home to roost.
Yes we have had a lot of very light weight political leaders over the last decade or so.
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Perhaps, but some comfort should be derived from the fact that sufficient wisdom prevailed to vend ship to RAN, as opposed to more questionable entities. Somewhat similar to sale of Upholder class to the Canadians. Not all bad to occasionally provide your allies w/ a one time, good deal. 🤔😳👍
Actually Jonathan, you raise a really good point, The government col have placed these assets into storage for later reactivation, as opposed to selling off the type 23s etc.
Isn this sort of thing normally undertaken on RFA Argus?
Any big deck ship can do it. Good training for the Air Crew and the ships FD and Ops room teams
cheers Gunbuster, thanks.
Biggest problem was building both LPd’s and bay with no hangar.
Yes. But in 1998-2000 it was anticipated that amphibious shipping would be concentrated in a substantial UK Amphibious Task Group, and that this would have a dedicated LPH to support and maintain aviation assets. The LPH was usually the brand new HMS Ocean, or one of three Invincible’s if she was unavailable. Adding a hanger to the Bay class ALSD’s was unaffordable in both cost and crew – they were intended to be CHEAP to build and run. Whilst it had been a close run thing getting approval to replace the Fearless class LPD with the similar Albion’s. Adding decent aviation facilities to the Albion’s (perhaps even turning them in to through deck LHDs) would have been nice, but there was no way the RN would have got approval to build these big and expensive ships as well as the two future aircraft carriers. The Treasury would have made it one or the other!
Albion class originally had a hangar and I think extra medical facilities. These were removed as a cost saving at the design stage which is why the super structure looks a bit odd. It also cost almost as much as was saved getting all the redesign work done…
I don’t suppose you have a source for this? The 1990’s were a totally different era, and occasionally reading Navy International in a Wardroom was as good as it got for me!
I’d have to do some digging. Hearing it at Dartmouth in 2000 was my original source!