Royal Navy aviators spent a month on the ranges in Scotland in adrenalin-fuelled combat training with RAF and US comrades.
Commando Wildcat air and ground crew from 847 Naval Air Squadron decamped from their home in Somerset to the Cromarty Firth for four weeks of fire and fury from pummelling enemy forces with their own guns to calling in artillery and heavy air power to leading an airborne assault.
They returned to their parent Commando Helicopter Force at RNAS Yeovilton fully ready for any mission they might be expected to complete on the front line.
As an ever-ready squadron supporting the UK Commando Force, 847 must be ready to fight at anytime, anywhere.
Tain Air Weapons Range, which occupies the site of the former RAF airfield of the same name just north of the Cromarty Firth north of Inverness, allows live-firing in a safe environment against a spread of targets – all while battling Scottish wind and rain.
Time at Tain allowed 847’s pilots and aircrew to qualify or re-qualify on both the M3M Heavy Machine Gun and General Purpose Machine Gun – some personnel had never fired either weapon before.
Pilot Lieutenant James Parker describes the effect in the helicopter when the aircrewman starts laying down the lead:
“The first time being in a Wildcat firing the M3M is an experience for all senses. Flying using Night Vision Goggles at low level, 200 to 1,500 metres from the target, it comes into the arcs. CLEAR TO FIRE!”
“The whole aircraft moves sideways from the recoil of the.50 calibre ammunition. The smell of the ammunition fills the cabin, and the flashes of the tracer rounds pierce the dark night sky as they make their way to the target.”
On days of the heaviest ‘fighting’ more than 4,000 rounds were expended by the gunners, while the Wildcats themselves were typically flying eight hours daily – spanning daylight and night-time.
The Wildcats were joined in Scotland by the gunners of 29 Commando, marines of 42 Commando, a MC130 from the US Air Force’s 67 Special Operations Squadron – a Hercules modified for raids and rapid infil-/exfiltration, and Typhoons of II(AC) Squadron, some of whose pilots were novices in close-air support.
Joint Terminal Attack Controllers on the ground with 29 and 42 Commando and Forward Air Controller (Airborne) – known as FAC(A)s – in the Wildcats coordinated fire from the helicopters, Typhoons and artillery, honing close air-ground support, communications and procedures.
“When you’ve got troops in contact, seconds matter, and having the words, cadence, and precision to effect fire quickly can be the difference between mission success or failure,” Lt Parker explained.
The training built up to a full-on aviation assault to take out a simulated surface-to-air missile (SAM) site and associated garrison at RAF Kinloss.
After Royal Marines from 42 Commando surrounded the hideout of two ‘warlords’ (played by 847 NAS pilots), three Wildcats landed their assault force to seize the site and capture the renegades then directed the Typhoons to knock out the SAMs and ‘enemy’ mortars.
They also staged a simulated casualty evacuation; one Wildcat provides cover overhead while another flies in, lands, recovers the casualty and is airborne again – all inside 60 seconds.
