A SIGHT to strike fear into the heart of any enemy submariner – a Merlin launching an attack on her prey.

Sadly, though, the world-leading helicopter has not suddenly been blessed with a capacious bomb-bay or weapon racks as wide as her rotor span.

HMS Sutherland’s 829 NAS helicopter launches a single training variant torpedo in a simulated Stingray torpedo attack – part of Exercise Halcyon Rendezvous, a small element of the overarching Auriga deployment led by flagship HMS Ark Royal.

Flight Commander Lt Cdr Hamish McKee is proud of his flight’s integration with the ship, saying: “My team is ready to go – we’ve proved that we can operate with HMS Sutherland to the highest level and now we are ready to take on anything that is thrown at us.”

During one of the exercises, the Merlin closed the enemy task group at low level under radar coverage and provided Sutherland with accurate targeting information for her Harpoon missiles, allowing the ship to successfully engage and ‘destroy’ the enemy – a daredevil raid which prompted one of the American ships to dub Taliska and her crew the ‘Heroes of Auriga’.    

Cdr John Payne, Commanding Officer of Sutherland, said: “I’ve been really impressed with the high reliability of the Merlin, and the support we’ve received from the task group has ensured that our aircraft is always available to the ship.

“The Merlin itself has really expanded our operational capability as a unit.

“With the aircraft’s advanced sensors and weapons, we can track and attack the enemy from long range.

“The aircraft, in conjunction with the frigate’s 2087 sonar, combine to create a first-class submarine hunting force.”

See six pages of Auriga coverage in Navy News’ August issue.