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Known throughout the Royal Navy as ‘the Flying Tigers’ due to their distinctive badge, 814 Naval Air Squadron use the fearsome Merlin helicopter to conduct anti-submarine warfare from the skies.
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Maintained in a constant state of high readiness, 814 Naval Air Squadron uses the Merlin Mk2 anti-submarine helicopter to protect the Fleet from surface and sub-surface threats and to support maritime security operations.
This versatile squadron – known as the ‘Flying Tigers’ – also aids in search-and-rescue missions and the transportation of stores, equipment and personnel. In March 2018, the Flying Tigers merged with 829 NAS to become the Royal Navy’s largest ever Merlin Mk2 squadron.
We began life in December 1938 operating six legendary Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers.
At the outbreak of war, 814 moved on to HMS Hermes, her limitations did not suit European seas, so she was mainly used for convoy protection in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
In July, Hermes' 814 NAS Swordfish attacked the Vichy French ship Richelieu at Dakar. Against heavy anti-aircraft fire the aircraft only managed one hit, battleship was disabled for over a year.
In April while en route to the Indian Ocean from Trincomalee to the Maldives, Hermes was attacked and sunk by Japanese aircraft. Luckily, the Swordfish of 814 NAS had left her earlier that month.
The squadron formed up with Barracudas in 1944 to embark in HMS Venerable for the Far East. Post-war 814 adapted to a succession of Fireflys, Avengers and Gannets in the ASW role.
In 1960 814 NAS welcomed its first rotary wing – the Whirlwind helicopter. From Whirlwind to Wessex, in 1967 the Wessex Mk3 brought the squadron its first radar-equipped ASW helicopter.
A brief lull saw the squadron out of commission between 1970 and 1973, before bursting back onto the scene in 1973 at HMS Gannet with the new Sea Kings ASW Mk1.
It was in April 1976 that the squadron settled in Cornwall’s RNAS Culdrose – where it has remained to this day; although its aircraft have been through both reincarnations and total transformations.
The new Mk 2 ASW Sea King arrived in 1977 – after the squadron had played a role in the evacuation of Cyprus – and in addition 814 was the first Naval squadron fitted with passive sonar equipment.
814 operated the Mk5 and Mk6 incarnations through the last two decades of the 20th Century. The Mk6 flew from carrier HMS Invincible during the Gulf, Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts.
814 marked the birth of the new millennium by disbanding in December 2000. But ten months later the Flying Tigers were back – the striped faces now borne (subtly) upon the Merlin HM1.
In 2014 the Merlin HM Mk1 was retired. 814 NAS gave the Merlin HM Mk 1 her operational debut and deployed to the Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean and the Gulf across 14 years of service.
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