700W Naval Air Squadron

700 is the number the Fleet Air Arm use to identify their evaluation Squadron as each new Type or Mark of aircraft enters service. The suffix letter then further identifies the type of aircraft that is being flown or evaluated. This time around 700 Squadron reformed on 14 May 2009 as 700(W) Naval Air Squadron based at RNAS Yeovilton, specifically to deal with the introduction to service of the Lynx Wildcat. The Squadron personnel consist of a small cadre of aircrew especially selected from the Lynx Helicopter Force for their experience in test flying, training and tactics.

Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke

Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
Wildcat makes its debut at sea

This Wildcat Fielding Squadron, prior to the delivery of the first airframe, has been working establish the ‘shape’ of the new Wildcat Maritime Force and how the Navy will transition from Lynx to Wildcat over the next 5 years. Once the first Naval variant of the Wildcat is delivered at the beginning of 2013, the Squadron will then shift focus on to a flying assessment phase, having undergone factory delivered training on the aircraft at the end of 2012. The period of flying prior to the aircraft entering frontline service is designed to optimise operating procedures and ensure the safe and efficient introduction to RN service and delivery of Wildcat Operational Capability. This is known as the Tactical Development phase or TACDEV for short, and follows on from the testing done by the Combined Test Team of industry and military test pilots at Augusta-Westland, who will have already proven the safety and compliance of the aircraft prior to its delivery. Trials of FASGW (Future Air to Surface Guided Weapon) which is being developed in two variants, light and heavy, and both destined for use on Wildcat, will also form part of the Squadrons workload. 700(W) are responsible for the conversion of all existing Lynx aircrew onto the Wildcat, as well as providing the core of personnel to set up the Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) for Wildcat due to stand up in early 2015. Once the OCU is established it will eventually take over all Wildcat training and 700(W) will be decommissioned to await the arrival of the next new aircraft type to join the Fleet Air Arm.

COMMANDING OFFICER

Rob Taylor

RANK:
Lieutenant Commander

JOINED:
1989

SPECIALISATION:
Warfare (Observer)

PREVIOUS UNITS:
HMS Broadsword, HMS Montrose

Military experience

Rob Taylor was born in Humberside in 1971 and joined the Royal Navy as Direct Entry Aircrew in September 1989. After successfully completing Basic Observer Training he was selected to fly the Lynx Helicopter and appointed to 702 Squadron at RNAS Portland for Advanced and Operational Flying Training on the Lynx Mk3.

A keen winter sports enthusiast, he is currently the Championships Director for the Royal Navy Alpine Championships where he is a reasonable skier and novice snowboarder. He also likes to play golf where possible, enjoying a 14 handicap. He lives just outside Salisbury with his wife and their 2 sons.

After frontline tours in HMS Battleaxe and HMS Broadsword he was selected for instructional duties on 702 Squadron where he specialised in secondary roles. After completing the Mk8 conversion course he returned to the front line, initially as the Flight Observer and subsequently as the Flight Commander to Captain F6 in HMS Montrose. During this time he saw a deployment to the Falklands, embarked in the USS Cape St George and spent time in HMS Somerset deployed in the Adriatic during the Kosovo conflict.

Following these appointments he returned to instructional duties as the Training Officer at the Lynx Simulators, contributing to the development and introduction of the Mk8 DSP upgrade, in the UK and Montreal. It was during this time that he completed his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) with the Open University. A tour on the Lynx Operational Evaluation Unit followed, which included the first Trial Aftershock, at the time the largest single Sea Skua firings conducted, and a high seas firing, helping to sink HMS Brave and Boxer in the Atlantic Ocean. He also completed the Initial Command and Staff Course at Shrivenham.

During this time he was selected to attend the GD Aerosystems Course at RAF Cranwell, graduating with his second Masters degree in 2005, a Masters of Science (MSc) in Aerospace Systems from Kingston University. A tour at Boscombe Down followed as the Mission Systems Trials Officer for Future Lynx, before a staff tour at Navy Command HQ as the Deputy Staff Aviation Officer. A return to Yeovilton beckoned and he joined 700W NAS (Wildcat fielding Squadron) in February 2010 before assuming Command on 23 September.

LATEST NEWS

TAKE A LOOK

- Arthur and Ivy Whitty with the Wildcat Transition Team
- Wildcat Gardners at work
- Wildcat makes its debut at sea
- Wildcat makes its debut at sea
- Wildcat Landing on HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat Landing on HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat Landing on HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat Landing on HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat Landing on HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat Landing on HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operating from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat operates from HMS Iron Duke
- Wildcat
- Wildcat
- Wildcat
- Wildcat
- Wildcat
- Wildcat
- Wildcat
- Wildcat
- Lynx Wildcat
- Lynx Wildcat
- Lynx Wildcat
- Lynx Wildcat
- Lynx Wildcat

UNITS IN TIME

700W Naval Air Squadron HISTORY

TRACK THE HISTORY OF SHIPS NAMED 700W Naval Air Squadron

Formation - Second Battle Squadron

702 Naval Air Squadron – motto cave ungues felis: beware the claws of the cat – traces its history back to July 1936 and 702 Flight, which flew Walrus and Seal aircraft with 2nd Battle Squadron. After a brief dalliance with Swordfish floatplanes, the formation – now a squadron – flew Fairey Seafoxes from armed merchant cruisers during World War 2.
War in the Far East

The Squadron was disbanded in 1943, but stood up again towards the war’s end to support the war in the Far East. Unfortunately, they arrived in the Pacific three weeks after the Japanese threw in the towel.
The Next Incarnation

The next incarnation of the squadron was as the RN’s Jet Evaluation and Training Unit flying Sea Vampires, Meteors and, latterly, Supermarine Attackers, until it was re-badged as part of 736 NAS in 1952.
A Training Squadron

After a brief reappearance in the late 50s as a training squadron giving non-Fleet Air Arm Navy personnel a taste of flight, the most recent variant of 702 was formed in Yeovilton in 1978.
Yeovilton

Has been a training unit at Portland (1982-99) and today at Yeovilton.

1936
1943
1952
1978
1981

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700W Naval Air Squadron