An Army Helicopter On The Flight Deck Of A Navy Frigate

An AS532UL/AL Cougar helicopter on the flight deck of a Turkish G class frigate.

The civil and military search and rescue organisations of Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, conducted a search and rescue exercise between 11th and 14th of June.

Şehit Caner Gönyeli Search and Rescue Exercise was held in international waters of Eastern Mediterranean and in territorial waters of TRNC, according to Turkish General Staff website. Among the participating naval units was F-490 TCG Gaziantep, a G class frigate from Turkish Navy.

The above photo shows a Turkish Army AS532UL/AL Cougar helicopter on the flight deck of the (probably) TCG Gaziantep. Such large helicopters can land on these frigates but cannot be accommodated in the hangars of these ship as they are designed for smaller helicopters such as SH-2 Seasprite and S-70 Seahawk in mind. Furthermore the land based helicopters usually cannot be folded like navalized helicopters preventing them to fit the hangars on frigate sized ships.

2 thoughts on “An Army Helicopter On The Flight Deck Of A Navy Frigate

  1. Seems to me this may be an airforce SAR helicopter.

    Considering that these helicopters routinely practice rescuing stranded pilots over water, they may very well train for landing on moving ships.

    1. ahh, high resolution image clearly shows it has “KARA” written on the tail.

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