LONDON, Aug. 29 -- The Royal Navy issued the following news:
A specialist Royal Navy unit has clocked up six years in Afghanistan repairing helicopters supporting the vital Allied mission in theatre. A five-strong team from 1710 Naval Air Squadron is responsible for fixing all damaged British military helicopters - whether they're Fleet Air Arm, RAF or Army Air Corps.
A specialist Navy team has clocked up six years keeping all British military helicopters in Afghanistan - that's RAF and Army Air Corps as well as the RN's own Fleet Air Arm - in working order for their vital mission.
A five-strong team from 1710 Naval Air Squadron - who were known as the Mobile Aircraft Support Unit, or MASU, when they began in Helmand back in 2006 - are based at Camp Bastion, the hub of the British effort in the country.
It's not the task of the 1710 detachment to look after helicopters on a day-to-day basis. But they are called upon to carry out complex repairs to whirlybirds damaged by emergency/rough landings and serious wear-and-tear or, to a lesser degree, enemy fire.
That means that although the team is based at Bastion it's trained - and called upon - to work 'outside the wire' with its equipment, carrying out a range of repairs from rapid battle damage to allow a mission to be completed, to a full repair which will last the lifetime of an aircraft.
The repair detachment currently comprises Lt Andy Betts, CPOs Tony Fisher and Phil Roberts and POs Simon Whittell and Liam Sutherland, all of whom can call upon a wealth of experience in the aircraft maintenance world.
Tony and Simon previously maintained Naval Strike Wing when Harriers deployed to Kandahar; with the demise of the fabled jump jets, they re-trained to look after helicopters.
"Although we've been to theatre before, this time our role is very different," explained 38-year-old Tony who hails from Peterborough.
"Where before we were busy maintaining aircraft as part of a large squadron, this time around we're part of a small team and have to remain very reactive to all forms of damage across the three Services."
'All forms of aircraft' includes Army Apache gunships and battlefield Lynx (and the RN's own 847 NAS is due to deploy flying the same helicopter), Fleet Air Arm 'bagger' Sea Kings which provide eyes in the skies for Allied ground forces, and RAF Chinooks and Merlins.
The latter might require a state-of-the-art composite repair, while a Sea King can be fixed with a more traditional sheet metal repair.
"Since coming to theatre, we've carried out repairs to some aircraft we hardly ever see in the UK," said 27-year-old PO Sutherland from Thurso.
"I'm looking forward to using my knowledge to help less experienced members of the squadron get ready for their Afghanistan tours - after some post-operational leave, of course."
Lt Betts said that squadron personnel had noticed definite changes during the six years 1710 and its forebear had been in Afghanistan.
"We can see that in the frequency and type of damage we are being asked to repair," he explained.
"A few years ago it would have been mainly damage due to enemy action, the majority of work we are now seeing is down to aircraft fatigue and the difficulties of operating in the dusty Afghan environment."
His parent unit acts as the 'fourth emergency service' for all the UK Armed Forces rotary-wing aircraft around the globe, while the RAF provides an identical service for fixed-wing aircraft, irrespective of Army, Air Force or Navy. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at [email protected]
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