Navy

Royal Navy Feature In Impromptu Firework Display

The Caribbean has been treated to a daytime firework display as the Lynx helicopter of RFA Lyme Bay tested her Infra-Red Countermeasures.

The Royal Navy helicopter fired them over waters off Grand Cayman during a training flight for the 180-knot aircraft.

High-line winch practising

Flares are intended to deceive incoming heat-seeking missiles by drawing them away from the Lynx’s engines onto a much hotter target.

The firing was part of a number of sorties for the flight which included a practice shoot for the sniper team, a chance to test the defensive flares and a rehearsal of the ship’s use of smoke flame floats.

These are dropped into the ship’s wake when the helicopter makes a radar-controlled approach in very low visibility.

RFA Lyme Bay

The helicopter is being used principally in the fight against trafficking in the region, tracking, chasing and, if necessary, stopping ‘go-fast’ boats used bydrug-runners – but can provide assistance in disaster relief by ferrying equipment and people to hurricane-hit areas.

Nothing has quite trumped the image captured by Photographer David Jenkins yet, however:

As HMS Dragon patrols the Eastern Mediterranean her Lynx helicopter breathes fire into the sunset sky with a stunning array of decoy flares.