CDF naval utility helicopter

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The Community Defence Forces of Sober Thought use naval utility helicopters for a variety of roles such as anti-submarine warfare, search-and-rescue and light naval transport.

The CDF Air Service provides the rotary-wing helicopters and the CDF Naval Service provides the warships upon which the latter are based. No. 77 airframe is common to all the ASW, search-and-rescue and light transport helicopter variants discussed below. The larger the ship the more likely the basic model has been replaced with a task-oriented variant. Each numbered squadron regardless of role or ordinal sequence also has a unique three-letter squadron code like all other air squadrons.


Naval utility helicopter

CDF Air Service
No. 77 Airframe
HU-77: Naval utility/transport helicopter
HUBR-77: Anti-submarine warfare
HUS-77: Search and rescue
Propulsion: singe rotor with twin turbine
Length: 20 m
Crew: two pilot officers+
up to 15 cabin crew/passengers

HU77.jpg

The basic HU-77 Huan is the workhorse of the Naval Service's smaller surface warships which have room for only one helicopter which must perform all roles tolerably well. If the HU-77 is used for light tactical lift, it can carry up to 15 passengers besides the two officer pilots. Fittingly, "Huan" is a Chinese personal name meaning literally "happiness," and few things make small ship skippers happier than a functioning naval utility helicopter.

The CDF's naval helicopter is similar in concept, although one hopes better in execution, to the real world Sikorsky Sea King helicopter. In recent years the latter has acquired a bad reputation of an unreliable aircraft prone to crashing and suffering unexpected catastrophic failures. This is misleading, however, since crash-prone helicopters are usually elderly, their airframes approaching or exceeding their stress levels, their engines and mechanical parts long past their best before date, and the crewmembers are often half the age of the chopper they fly.

The twin turbine propulsion units are designed to give excellent thrust and stability for making difficult landings in rough weather on a pitching deck. The four blades on its main rotor can be pivoted for compact storage. The four blades on its rear stabilising rotor are encapsulated like the RL Gazelle, a collaboration between the British Westland and French Aérospatiale companies. As befits an aircraft based on warships, the entire airframe is designed to float if necessary, giving it a characteristic boxy look that seemingly defies aerodynamics.

The Huan and indeed all No. 77 airframe helicopters have a two-officer flight crew: the more senior officer is the pilot and commanding officer; and the more junior is the co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer and communications officer. The remainder of the crew, if any, depend upon the role given to the specific rotary wing aircraft for a specific mission. Frigates carry one set each of ASW and SAR crew, plus the sensors, equipment and armament necessary for their individual roles.


Naval utility helicopter squadrons

Main article: CDF naval aviation#Naval Escort Air Group.

For every one hundred million people residing in Sober Thought, the Community Defence Forces raise four naval utility helicopter squadrons who share their ordinal sequence with ASW and SAR helicopter squadrons as well. These four squadrons are organised into two theoretical wings which, with the Naval Composite Wing based on cruisers, form the Naval Escort Air Group with a small shore establishment.

These paper squadrons receive a three-letter squadron code like their real rather than notional counterparts; however, the fourth letter -- indicating the specific aircraft in the squadron -- is far more important and usually relates to the name, nickname or attributes of the frigate or tender upon which it is based.

One Naval Utility Helicopter Wing is a shore-only paper formation encompassing the air assets of the destroyers raised in each population wave. It consists of two equally notional squadrons, each warship having one flight of two helicopters with six warships' flights constituting a squadron. Since destroyers have two No. 77 airframe rotary wing aircraft on each ship, their captains have the luxury of permanently leaving one helicopter each in the SAR and ASW configurations. In any event, a catastrophically disabled chopper could be cannibalised to provide the equipment to the surviving helo.

Naval Helicopter Utility Flights consist of 30 personnel all ranks: a commanding officer Lieutenant, an executive officer Vice Lieutenant, three pilot Vice Lieutenants, a flight sergeant and maintenance chief Vice Warrant Officer, an ASW chief (Leading Flier), a SAR chief (Leading Flier), two maintenance segment leaders (Leading Fliers), two maintenance segment deputy leaders (Master Fliers), two navigators (Master Flier), an ASW technician (Flier), a SAR technician (Flier), and 14 maintenance technicians (Fliers).

A second Naval Utility Helicopter Wing performs the same function for frigates and small craft tenders. Each of these warships has one detachment of a single helicopter with a dozen frigates and one tender's detachments constituting a squadron. Naval Utility Helicopter Detachments consist of 20 personnel all ranks: two pilots (both Vice Lieutenants, the senior one acting as detachment commander), an ASW chief (Leading Flier), a SAR chief (Leading Flier), a maintenance chief (Leading Flier), two navigators (Master Fliers), three maintenance deputy chiefs (Master Fliers), an ASW technician (Flier), a SAR technician (Flier), and eight maintenance technicians (Fliers).


Anti-submarine warfare

Long range patrol and ASW is conducted by coastal-based CDF maritime patrol aircraft; however, short range ASW is conducted exclusively by the HUBR-77 Hubert variant of the No. 77 airframe. The helicopter is armed with any combination of three anti-submarine rocket, torpedo and mini-mine launchers. The weapons are located portside, starboard and at the stern. ASW techs winch down a sonobuoy, using the same hardware as the SAR variant, to detect subsurface movement. The helicopter can either notify its shipboard commanding officer of the threat to be dealt with later, or it can use its own weaponry to defeat the submarine on the spot.

In addition to the two pilots, a Hubert has three other ranks in the cabin crew: a Leading Flier (up to Warrant Officer) the ASW chief, a Master Flier as navigator-communicator-flight engineer, and a Flier as ASW technician. There is also room for up to four observers, passengers or relief crewmembers.

HUBR-77s exist singly on frigates and, occasionally in pairs, on destroyers; however, a complete and truly operational squadron of 240 all ranks is always found in an aircraft carrier's utility wing. The single ASW-only squadron shares the same ordinal sequence with the more numerous SAR-only and general naval utility helicopter squadrons.

The ASW helicopter squadron's commanding officer is a Chief Lieutenant, the executive officer a Lieutenant, the Squadron Sergeant a Warrant Officer and three flight COs Lieutenants in charge of four HUBR-77s each. Because of their dedicated role and the greater amount of room available on a large warship, the squadron carries one complete extra crew for every other helicopter, instead of just one extra crew doubling as the command staff.


Search and rescue

The manoeuvrability of helicopters makes them ideal for both long- and short-range SAR work. The flight crew are the usual pair of pilot officers, and the cabin crew vary depending on the home ship and the mission. A typical crew in a notional squadron made up entirely of single-utility helicopter detachments doing double ASW and SAR duty consists of a Leading Flier as SAR chief and a Flier as SAR technician. A typical cabin crew in an operational squadron consists of a flight surgeon officer or a paramedic other rank, a SAR chief NCO, a navigator-communicator-flight engineer OR and a diver OR, but it can be much more easily reconfigured because of its greater number of personnel and unit specialisation.

The No. 77 airframe modified for SAR work is called the HUS-77 Hudson, after the English explorer of that surname. The winch is capped with either a stretcher or lifebuoy, the cabin is equipped with a full emergency medical technician's kit, and the rest of the interior is configured to accept ten ambulatory or four stretcher cases.

There are six SAR-only squadrons for each population wave of one hundred million citizens, two for each Naval Composite Wings in the Coastal Defence Air Group. Squadrons appear in the same ordinal sequence as those designated ASW or NUH squadrons.

As usual, the command staff -- including a Chief Lieutenant is the commanding officer, a Lieutenant the executive officer and a full Warrant Officer the Squadron Sergeant – can replace an entire crew of a helicopter. Each of the three airborne Flights consist of four rotary wing aircraft and one Lieutenant as flight CO/pilot. The squadron has only 200 all ranks because the influx of medical personnel is exceeded by the outflux of ordnance personnel, although there is usually enough equipment and at least three appropriately trained crewmembers to convert one of the twelve helicopters into the HUBR-77 ASW variant.

Most No. 77 airframes on aircraft carriers are ASW variants; however, a flight of three Hudsons is usually part of a Naval Composite Squadron in each Utility Wing.