The British Carrier Strike Fleet after 1945 by David Hobbs

Author:David Hobbs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Naval
ISBN: 9781848324121
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
Published: 2015-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

A Wessex HU 5 of 845 NAS from Bulwark launching an SS-11 air-to-surface missile over the Borneo jungle. (Author’s collection)

The Wessex IFTU was commissioned as 700H NAS at RNAS Culdrose in June 1960 and the first operational unit, 815 NAS, formed a year later in July 1961 for service in Ark Royal. The Wessex rapidly replaced the Whirlwind in both antisubmarine and, with the sonar removed, commando squadrons. A total of 129 Wessex HAS 1 were built and they equipped 814, 815, 819, 820, 824, 826 and 829 NAS for anti-submarine duties, 845, 846, 847 and 848 NAS for commando assault duties and 700H, 700V, 706, 707, 737, 771, 772 and 781 NAS for second-line and training duties. Despite its modest design origins, the Wessex could genuinely be called a successful aircraft that filled a number of disparate roles well. It was a joint project and Marks 2 and 4 were applied to versions used by the RAF for troop transport and the Royal Flight.

Developments continued after the Wessex HAS 1 entered service. These included the HU 5 commando assault variant in which two Rolls-Royce Gnome engines replaced the single Napier Gazelle giving it the capability to carry underslung loads up to 3000lbs under most conditions or up to sixteen fully-equipped marines on internal seats along the sides of the cabin. One hundred of this version were built and the version re-equipped 845 NAS in 1966, followed by the other commando units. It remained in service until the early 1980s. The Wessex HAS 3, an improved anti-submarine version was markedly less successful. Three HAS 3 were built from scratch and forty-three others converted from HAS 1s. This mark featured a surface-search radar mounted in a dorsal radome from which it could ‘see’ to the sides and rear but not directly ahead through the main rotor gearbox. It also had the much-improved Type 195 pulse-doppler dipping sonar and an improved FCS which was capable of manoeuvring the aircraft through the jump cycle from hover to hover to lower the sonar body into the water without the pilots’ hands on the controls by day or night in any weather. The Gazelle engine was slightly uprated to 1600shp but this was not enough to compensate for the increased weight of the new equipment. The HAS 3 had fuel for a nominal 90 minutes flight but in the temperatures found in the Far East, this was seldom possible. Endurance could be extended by fitting a 98-gallon drop tank to one of the two weapons pylons but this extra weight precluded the carriage of a weapon and prevented the HAS 3 from operating as a hunter/killer like the HAS 1. The Wessex HAS 3 represented an attempt to ‘put a quart into a pint pot’ and the type only served briefly in Eagle, Hermes, the two Tiger class cruiser conversions and the ‘County’ class destroyers in which space for a flight deck and hangar substituted for the two Mark 10 mortars in the early design proposals.

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