Westland Sea King ASaC7
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The Westland Sea King ASaC7 is a Royal Navy helicopter operated in the Airborne Surveillance and Area Control (ASaC) role, previously the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) role. The type operates from the Royal Navy's Invincible class aircraft carriers.
The ASaC7 is a further upgrade of the AEW7, itself an upgraded version of the original Westland Sea King AEW2A, which entered service as a result of the lessons learned during the Falklands War. A crash programme saw two Sea Kings modified and flying within eleven weeks. The first AEW2As were deployed to the South Atlantic soon after the war. 13 Sea Kings were eventually modified. The main modification is the addition of the Thales Searchwater radar which is attached to the side of the fuselage on a swivel arm. This allows the helicopter to lower the radar below the fuselage in flight and to raise it for landing. The main role of the ASaC Sea King is detection of low flying attack aircraft. It also provides interception/attack control and Over-the-Horizon targeting for surface launched weapon systems.
FOAEW
The replacement for the fleet will be the Future Organic Airborne Early Warning (FOAEW) aircraft, which will operate from the UK's future carrier, CVF. The large size of these ships (three times the displacement of the current Invincible class) allow a greater choice in aircraft to fulfil the requirement. Current options include
- Merlin (EH101) helicopter
- V-22 Osprey
- E-2C Hawkeye
- UAVs
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