Commando choppers prepare for hurricanes
Royal Marine helicopters took to South West Wales for a fortnight to prepare them should a hurricane strike the Caribbean
The Commando Helicopter Force recently took part in Exercise Merlin Storm which saw Royal Marine Merlin and Wildcat helicopters take on the mock, Hurricane Dave. The Commando aircrews were also joined by the Royal Air Force’s heavy-lifting Chinooks.
The force is on standby to assist the Royal Navy-led task group already on patrol in the Caribbean.
Merlin Storm saw a wide range of training activities and tactical scenarios. Including mounted and dismounted tactical operations, a number of heliborne vehicles, equipment, and personnel insertions across the training area.
The commandos were exposed to a simulated hurricane-struck island and were expected to look after themselves.
They were left to live in the field in basic conditions, with Navy chefs running field kitchens and sailors helping provide fresh water.
The teams set up small refuelling posts around the Caerwent range as they would in the Caribbean.
In the second week of the exercise, the force was given a very different challenge. Mock criminal groups moved into the area, filling gaps left by the decimated legal authorities.
This led to fighting on the ground, helicopter assaults and threats to the Commando Helicopter Force outposts peppered around the range. Testing the ground troops in all environments and weathers.
The Commando Helicopter Force is affectionately known as ‘The Junglies’ for their operations in Borneo during the 1960s.
To plan the exercise, the military planners used their experiences of relief missions in the Philippines in 2013 (Operation Patwin) and in the Caribbean after a succession of storms in 2017 (Operation Ruman) to prepare the two-week workout.
Earlier this year RFA Argus was dispatched with Merlins, a Wildcat, and a specialist emergency relief team with supplies back in April, to work with the RN’s permanent presence around its overseas territories, HMS Medway.
