The Lynx helicopter team who played a key part in helping the people of the Philippines in the wake of last year’s devastating typhoon have been singled out for their efforts.
In the first few days of Britain’s response to Typhoon Haiyan, HMS Daring’s Lynx flew vital reconnaissance missions over outlying islands – missions which determined where the UK’s main humanitarian effort would be.
The six flights the 815 Naval Air Squadron helicopter – ‘Daring’s Darling’ – completed scoured more than 42,000 square miles of land and sea, including four dozen islands and 1,200 nautical miles of coastline, in all an area more than five times the size of Wales.
And once the most needy areas of the archipelago had been identified, the Lynx again proved crucial in delivering that aid.
In total 70 islands were visited by HMS Daring.
The Type 45 destroyer is undergoing maintenance and a substantial upgrade to her potency including improvements to many of her weapons, sensors and communication systems, as well as fitting Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles.
She will return to sea in the autumn to conduct work-up, then Operational Sea Training in preparation for her third deployment next year.
[mappress] Press Release, June 12, 2014; Image: UK Navy