HMAS Sydney closes up its flight deck team as an MH-60R (Romeo) from Helicopter Strike Squadron 77 from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington makes its approach.
To the casual observer this might appear to be just another helicopter about to land on the flight deck of an Australian warship, but to those in the know in HMAS Sydney , this was different.
According to HMAS Sydney ’s Commanding Officer, Commander Karl Brinckmann, this landing was to be one for the books.
“This was definitely the first scheduled MH-60R Deck Landing Practice (DLPS) conducted on an Australian FFG in the Sea of Japan in 2013,” CMDR Brinckmann said. He also went on to say that more than likely this was the first set of DLPS conducted with an MH-60R on an Australian FFG, but didn’t quite have the evidence to back up the claim.
Australia is scheduled to commission 725 Squadron operating the Romeo aircraft from 2015. There are approximately 112 Navy personnel in Florida, USA learning to operate and maintain the aircraft. The CO of NUSQN 725 (as it is known before commissioning) Commander David Frost, known by his former flying call-sign ‘Shake ‘n’ Bake’, stated that the aircraft is state of the art and a real game changer in surface and sub-surface warfare.
[mappress] Press Release, May 20, 2013.