The Royal Navy Merlin Mk2 Crowsnest Airborne Early Warning Helicopters have received Full Operational Capability and will be the eyes and ears of the UK Carrier Strike Group on its deployment to the Indo-Pacific over the next eight months.

The Merlin helicopters from 820 Naval Air Squadron arrived on HMS Prince of Wales from their home at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose to begin their involvement in the Carrier Strike Group 25 mission. The 200 men and women and their aircraft from the Merlin Helicopter Force will provide cutting edge anti-submarine warfare and airborne surveillance and control for the task group.

Wherever the CSG operates, the helicopters will hunt threats beneath the waves and scan the horizon for air and surface threats and can be used to coordinate defense and strike operations.

Among the nine helicopters are three designed for Airborne and Control (ASaC) which, delivered through the Crowsnest program, will fly more than a mile above the Carrier Strike Group using their radars, lowered underneath the fuselage in a domed bag, which earns them the nickname ‘Baggers’, to look ‘over the horizon’ up to 100 miles in any direction.

Captain Colin McGannity, Carrier Air Wing and Strike Warfare Commander said: “It’s an essential element of the Carrier Enabled Power Projection programme that, of course, we’re getting to the point of full operating capability for, with the Carrier Strike Group in the deployment coming up. The principal reason for having the ASaC capability and the Crowsnest programme to do that is for protection of the strike group against air threats and, although it doesn’t fire anything to engage missiles, it’s there to provide early warning to ships and particularly for the targets that ships would struggle to see themselves. By getting a really capable radar up high and looking down, we’re taking advantage of all the lessons that we’ve learned in the past, particularly back in the Falklands War to make sure that we’ve got that capability to help protect the strike group.”

Crowsnest reached Full Operating Capability ahead of deploying with the Carrier Strike Group and is now fully developed to ensure full protection to the task force’s warships from threats such as hostile aircraft, ships or incoming drones or missiles, enabling essential command and control over an extended area.