Looks a bit chilly up North
IL120153 by Royal Navy Media Archive
Flight Deck operations. Picture: LA(Phot) Dean Nixon Today 12 March 2012 HMS ILLUSTRIOUS ships company and elements of Commando Helicopter Force were on the flight deck preparing the Embarked Helicopters for l day and night of flying. HMS ILLUSTRIOUS is currently off the coast of Norway conducting Exercise Cold Response. Image Shows: Elements of Commando Helicopter Force preparing a Sea King for a days flying. Image Shows: Elements of Commando Helicopter Force preparing a sea king for a days flying.
Hagglunds BV206 All Terrain Tracked Vehicles in Norway by Defence Images
Photograph shows a Hagglunds BV206 in the training areas around Bardufoss, Norway during Exercise Cold Response. Naval personal from Commando Helicopter Force (CHF) take part in a forward operating base exercise (FOBEX) in preparation for Exercise Cold Response which takes place in the middle of March in Northern Norway. Two hundred naval personal from CHF are currently stationed at the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) training base Bardufoss, Norway. The JHC base known as âClockworkâ provides survival and operational training and support facilities to enable aviation capable unitâs arms to survive, operate and fight in extreme C2 environments. Photographer: POA(PHOT) Mez Merrill Image 45153738.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk For latest news visit: www.mod.uk Follow us: www.facebook.com/defenceimages www.twitter.com/defenceimages
Hagglunds BV206 All Terrain Tracked Vehicles in Norway by Defence Images
Photograph shows Naval personnel from the Commando Helicopter Force deploying in several Hagglunds BV206 all terrain track vehicles to a forward operating base in the training areas around Bardufoss, Norway during Exercise Cold Response. Naval personal from Commando Helicopter Force (CHF) take part in a forward operating base exercise (FOBEX) in preparation for Exercise Cold Response which takes place in the middle of March in Northern Norway. Two hundred naval personal from CHF are currently stationed at the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) training base Bardufoss, Norway. The JHC base known as âClockworkâ provides survival and operational training and support facilities to enable aviation capable unitâs arms to survive, operate and fight in extreme C2 environments. Photographer: POA(PHOT) Mez Merrill Image 45153737.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk For latest news visit: www.mod.uk Follow us: www.facebook.com/defenceimages www.twitter.com/defenceimages
More images and news…
http://www.navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/3981
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/TrainingAndAdventure/HmsIllustriousTrainsInToughArcticConditions.htm
Is this why we need the second CVF to be available as a hot spare, held at short term readiness?
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/hms-illustrious-on-her-way-home-to-portsmouth-after-crash-1-3632392#
@ TD – Nice pics.
Boss,
I second Gareth. The flight deck in snow is, for want of better words, thrilling. Having been afloat (civilian) in conditions like that (but probably without that wicked wind they have up that close to the North Cape!) it gives just enough glimpse of what that job takes to know I’m past being able to do it. BZ Lusty. And the shot in Oslofjord is a nice demonstration of what a fine looking piece of penny-pinching and corner-cutting (no hangar? No additional deck of lane space? Really?) that Bulwark is.
And in answer to your question/link at the end: yes, that is precisely why you need the second carrier ready to go in rotation, or at least a hot spare.
“Is this why we need the second CVF to be available as a hot spare, held at short term readiness?”
This is one of the many many reasons, oft pointed out, for why having just a single aircraft carrier is a foolish idea.
I likened it showing Britians fighting commitment to the Cold War in europe by parking BAOR in Germany just six months of every year.
JBT,
Nice analogy. And well played getting “oft” into a sentence
one likes to turn out a pithy phrase when occasion calls, for it serves admirably to import a due sense of a missive’s weight, and separates a man from those who are otherwise considered to lack sufficient bottom.
Indubitably. Ones bottom has clearly made the weight of its concomittant intelligence felt
Lol, my monday morning is a little brighter! Thank you.
YVW. Shall we consider that a bottom-up review, then?
This is just a general query that occurs to me, seeing Lusty and Bulwark out together. Why on earth isn’t HMS Illustrious the fleet flagship until her retirement in 2014? After that I can see the Albions as a stopgap: they would have the command facilities for RFTG. But until then Lusty has flag facilities, its an aircraft carrier (a Commando carrier of the old school, now) considerably faster and larger in displacement, and part of the flagship class — the last of them in fact. Sounds to me like a pissy political snub after the Harriers went, pig lipstick for the amphib group’s lack of air cover if CdeG won’t come out to play.
done, and done.
I thought the unarmoured BV206 had been replaced by the armoured S variant and that in turn by the Warthog.
i didn’t think we still used the 206, having seen them replaced in 3Cdo by the 210, but the warthog was purely an afghan UOR* as far as i was aware….?
* much as i think they’re swell!
CW & JBT,
Also quite possible that, since these are RN support personnel ashore (logistics probably) that these are on loan/taxi service from the Norse while the Vikings (nice natural pun) go do fighty things with simunition further in.
The Army should grab the Warthogs firmly with both hands (not my day for choices of phrase …) in PR12. They ned to not go away as much or, given their all-terrain qualities, more than the MRAP fleets.
CW & JBT,
Did a little more digging closer to (now) home — 1 RCR operated 206′s in the support vehicle role during the exercise. I could see them giving some fellow anglophones a ride.
Hi jackstaff, RE
“Why on earth isn’t HMS Illustrious the fleet flagship”
- it is still working up, on its way back from refit
- while it was away – will be again for a very short while – there had to be one with sufficient command facilities (not many such to choose from)
- one would expect a switch, but: Is 2014 too close to bother?