Help needed: - GUARDN83

[C24]

Nice pic MM.
Interesting thread, must do some reading about this!

[tm74sqn]

I believe that the contract will be for 10 roll-on/roll-off systems, which infers to me that they will be (fairly!) easily transferred between individual Merlin HM.2s.
A team from Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Training business and Elta Systems is competing against Thales UK for the systems contract – both parties have been awarded £6.5 million deals by the MoD to demonstrate and test their competing solutions. Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training is believed to be teaming with Israel Aerospace Industries subsidiary Elta. It is thought that the team has already flown the selected radar on a fixed-wing aircraft as part of the test program, that the radar is contained in a pod and that it would be fitted to existing hard points on the Merlin helicopter. The Thales Cerebrus system is an updated version of the Searchwater 2000 radar used onboard the Sea King ASaC.7s. Will be interesting to see who wins the contract - and what the modified Merlins will look like!
Regards, TM74

[Malfatron Malkovic]

Nice pic MM.
Interesting thread, must do some reading about this!

Good to hear you, Charley boy. Are you a-headed down to Predannack this June?

Interesting, but love that shot Malf, nice one Sir
I guess with one or more being retired, couple flying, maybe couple on ops. not too many left and a few more years to go to it's planned retirement in 2016.

Thank you sir. Mind you the King isn't dead yet, and there is always the slight possibility the King may live longer than expected!

[Aircraftpaulcornwall]

Hi Malf,
Beauty picture of the Sea King mate - as usual you were in the right place at the right time!! Very well done --Paul

[EGDR]

Interesting, but love that shot Malf, nice one Sir
I guess with one or more being retired, couple flying, maybe couple on ops. not too many left and a few more years to go to it's planned retirement in 2016.

Thank you sir. Mind you the King isn't dead yet, and there is always the slight possibility the King may live longer than expected![/quote]

Especially possible for the Mk.7s considering their replacement is a fair way off.

And of course, I agree with the others - great pic! Was that taken along the road? Would be quite helpful to know some spots for Mk.7s as I haven't got a shot AND read off any of them, but my list for photographing before retirement is coming along for the 771 cabs!

[Nick.M]

Thank's for that, Nick.
Here it is this week:


Interestingly (at least for me), your snaps help confirm something for me. The Bagger fleet seem to be under some form of upgrade. I first noticed it on XV649 last April. Most noticeable are the additional aerials and antenna under the hull.

I have a mate who is a Bagger pilot and I showed him the new antenna/aerials, he said they are just extra radio boxes and beacons fitted for the cabs that have been flying in theatre in Afghan.
He also confirmed that the baggers have been given an extra 2 year life extension

[Malfatron Malkovic]

Excellent news. I'd heard that there had been a lot of lobbying to get an extension for the Baggers, glad to hear that it's happened.

[POL]

Dave, check your Basestation.sqb file, what does it say for 249249? Mine shows:

249249 #Invalid #var #var # Various # Various

So if you're using mine, it might be that shared data has/is overwriting it?

[apgphoto]

GUARDN83=XV671 , GUARD087, GUARDN87, ORACLE87, STING87 = XV672, ORACLE80 = XV649 these plus XV707/184 and XV697/181 are the only Baggers that i have noticed active this year.

Are we saying that the hex 249249 is being used by two aircraft if the callsigns are allocated?

"249249" has been active at Aberporth over the last weeks, using ORACLE80 and GUARDN87, every-time its gone past the window I have missed it to eyeball it!