845 Naval Air Squadron

845 Naval Air Squadron is one of two front-line Sea King squadrons of the Commando Helicopter Force, in action daily in Afghanistan. Our helicopters provide support for Coalition ground forces by day and night around Helmand province, carrying troops and delivering vital supplies to outlying bases and evacuating casualties for immediate treatment. We have been committed to the international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan for three years now. The squadron, based at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset, consists of around 250 personnel – pilots, aircrewmen, engineers and technicians plus headquarters staff – responsible for ten Sea Kings Mk4s, split into five flights of two helicopters. 845 can deploy en masse as a whole squadron – or dispatch individual flights (helicopters, pilots, engineers) to ships or exercises around the world depending on what is required.

Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4
Sea King Mk4

COMMANDING OFFICER

James Newton

RANK:
Commander

JOINED:
1991

SPECIALISATION:
Warfare (Pilot)

PREVIOUS UNITS:
658 Sqn AAC, 846, 847, 848 NAS

Military experience

Over more than twenty years in the Royal Navy, Cdr Jim Newton has flown numerous aircraft types. Initially these were the Gazelle and Scout helicopters with the Army Air Corps, including conducting drug enforcement operations and medevac flights in Belize.

He then completed his ‘Junglie’ training in 1995 and since joining the Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force he has flown both the Sea King Mk4 and the Lynx AH7 on tours around the world, including operations in Northern Ireland and Iraq. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions on operations over the Al-Faw Peninsula and Basra in 2003.

Having qualified as a Qualified Helicopter Instructor in 2000 he has had a number of training roles, including with the Naval Flying Standards Flight before becoming the CHF Operations Officer, coordinating operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He then became the Senior Pilot on 848 NAS. Promoted to Commander in 2011, he joined 845 NAS in January 2012.

OPERATIONS

Operation Herrick

CURRENT STATUS: active

MISSION SUMMARY

Operation Herrick is the code-name for the work UK Forces have been doing in Afghanistan since 2002, working to bring about stability in the country and maintain the forces of law and order, pushing back the Taliban and preventing them from using the country as a base for terrorism.

Operational Flying Training

CURRENT STATUS: active

MISSION SUMMARY

Flying training conducted on board RFA Argus

LATEST NEWS

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- Sea King Mk4
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- Sea King Mk4
- Sea King Mk4
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- Sea King Mk4
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- Sea King Mk4

UNITS IN TIME

845 Naval Air Squadron HISTORY

TRACK THE HISTORY OF SHIPS NAMED 845 Naval Air Squadron

Action in the Far East

Apart from two years flying torpedo bombers in the second half of World War 2, 845 Naval Air Squadron has been a cutting-edge helicopter formation for more than half a century. The squadron was originally formed in February 1943 Flying Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers, seeing extensive action in the Far East in 1944 and 1945.
Battle Honours

East Indies 1944-45 Burma 1945
The First Anti-Submarine Helicopter Squadron

Disbanded at the war’s end, 845 reappeared in 1955 with Sikorsky S55s and, from 1957, Westland Whirlwinds, as the first anti-submarine helicopter squadron in the Fleet Air Arm. Despite this specialist role, the squadron demonstrated the versatility of the helicopter during the Suez Crisis of 1956 by carrying troops ashore in a ‘vertical assault’.
The First Commando Helicopter Squadron

The squadron was disbanded again in 1959 before reforming in 1962 as the first commando helicopter squadron which saw immediate action in the jungles of Brunei and Borneo, establishing the ‘jungly’ nickname which persists today.
Northern Ireland, The Falklands and Kuwait

845 spent much of the 1970s and early ’80s supporting the security and peacekeeping mission in Northern Ireland, but its helicopters were also sent to the South Atlantic in 1982 to liberate the Falklands. Another invasion half a world away saw the squadron earn its next battle honour during the international effort to drive Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait.
Battle Honours

Falklands 1982
Battle Honours

Kuwait 1991
Peacekeeping

From the end of 1992 until 2005, 845 maintained a permanent presence in the former Yugoslavia supporting UN/NATO peacekeeping operations; the squadron became the longest-serving unit in theatre.
Returning to the Gulf

In 2003 the squadron returned to the Gulf, this time during the campaign to oust Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Once the dictator had been toppled, the Sea Kings remained in the country for three years supporting stabilisation efforts on the ground.
Afghanistan

After improvements and upgrades to the Sea Kings, and with the mission in Iraq over, 845 was sent to Afghanistan in March 2008 and its men, women and helicopters have been committed there ever since.

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1945
1955
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1982
1991
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2003
2008

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845 Naval Air Squadron