Aircraft

The UK Ministry of Defence is to deploy a further two Sea King HC4 amphibious support helicopters to Afghanistan in early 2008 to provide battlefield support for British forces in and around the country’s Helmand province.

Announced by prime minister Gordon Brown on 12 December as part of an equipment package also including 150 new protected ground vehicles, the decision will increase the number of Sea Kings deployed to Afghanistan from a current total of four aircraft drawn from 846 NAS, based at RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset.

The MoD confirms that the deployed Sea Kings have received a number of operational enhancements to increase their effectiveness in Afghanistan, with these including the integration of new main and tail rotor blades to improve performance in hot and high environmental conditions.

The aircraft have also completed the first phase of an approximately £6 million ($12.2 million) upgrade, under which Israel’s Elbit Systems will provide helmet-mounted ANVIS/HUD-24 night vision and flight information systems.