War in Ukraine: how are the Sea King helicopters sent by England

This Wednesday, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced that the United Kingdom will send helicopters to Ukraine for the first time since the outbreak of the war with Russia, unleashed on February 24. From Norway, where he is to discuss military support for Ukraine with his allies, the official also said London would send an additional 10,000 artillery munitions to kyiv.

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The helicopters to be sent are of type “Sea King”. The first aircraft It would have already reached Ukrainian territory and it is estimated that they will provide two more. In addition, according to the BBC, in the last six weeks, the Ukrainian crews received UK training to fly and keep helicoptersand to provide capabilities of search and rescue.

Since the beginning of war conflictthere are few countries that sent manned aircraft to Ukraine. Last weekend, the Ukrainian Prime MinisterRishi Sunak, took advantage of a visit to kyiv to introduce a new defense aid package £50 million (more than 60 million dollars), which included 125 anti-aircraft guns and equipment to counterr the drones supplied by Iran.

England will send Sea King helicopters (Courtesy Antonio Urbano /)

How are the Sea King helicopter?

The Westland WS-61 Sea King, the first to arrive Ukraine, measures around 22 meters long and weighs approximately 6,201 kilos, according to information published by The Express. The aircraft It is powered by two engines rolls royce gnome, can reach more than 27 kilometers per hour when flying at sea level and has anti-submarine warfare systems of British manufacture and a fully computerized flight control system. It is important to highlight that this type of helicopter It is no longer manufactured, and it costs more than 6,060,000 dollars to put it “to tune”.

According to the foundation’s website Navy Wingsdedicated to telling the story of the naval aviation of great britainthis helicopter Westland Sea King came to the British Royal Navy in 1970 and, from there, it was converted several times for different purposes. It was used by both royal air force as for the Royal Navy, until this force withdrew the last boat in 2018, as published by the BBC.

The Westland Sea King was leased to a private firm in 2018, according to the Navy Wings organization. (navywings.org.uk/)

Although the Sea King It was primarily designed to perform missions of antisubmarine Warfare, over the years it was modified to play different roles within the british army: was a search and rescue helicopter: and also, of control and airborne surveillance.

England used this aircraft during several wars. That was how he prince andrew flew one of them during his participation in the Malvinas War, and this aircraft also saw action in the gulf warthe conflict of the Balkans and the Iraq war.

Finally, in June 2017, the Westland WS-61 was rented by the company Heli Operations to be used in training German Federal Navy.

East helicopter was built with the production license of the famous Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King. In this way, the Westland Sea King was manufactured by Westland Helicopters and constitutes the british version of sikorsky. Anyway, it’s popular around the world, having seen service with Denmark, the United States, Germany, Australia, Norway, Belgium, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Qatar.

Source: Elcomercio