RN's Sea King AEW7 Helps in Operations Against Talibans

United Kingdom is using its Sea King AEW7 (also known as ASaC7) helicopter for the intelligence, surveillance, early enemy detection missions against the land targets for supporting ground forces in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Commander of the Sea King Force, Pat Douglas said that it has been operating Sea King Mark 7 helicopters in Afghanistan for two years.

Sea King ASaC7 (Airborne Surveillance and Control Mk.7) provides early warning and surveillance capability to the ISAF forces in Afghanistan against Taliban movements. Sea King ASaC7 uses its Link 16 data link secure communication capability to provide latest airborne surveillance information to the commanders at the ground.

 

Sea King Mark 7 is equipped with the Searchwater 2000 airborne early warning (AEW) radar. Two Sea King HAS2 were modified with the ARI 5930/3 Searchwater radar in 1982 and were deployed on HMS Illustrious.

Royal Navy (RN) ordered the further modification of seven Sea King HAS2s into Sea King AEW2 configuration. Modified  Sea King AEW2 were deployed by the 849 Naval Air Squadron in 1985. Another four Sea King HAS5s were later converted into AEW5s.

Royal Navy ordered upgrade its fleet of Sea King AEW under Project Cerberus in 1997 and first two upgraded Sea Kings were delivered in May 2002 and all the upgraded Sea King were delivered by the end of 2004. 

Upgrade included improved Searchwater 2000AEW radar, Cerberus mission system and and Link 16 JTIDS (joint tactical information distribution system) datalink. These upgraded Sea Kings were designated Sea King AEW7 but later on these were renamed ASaC7 (Airborne Surveillance and Control Mk.7).