UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH THE FRONT LINE MERLIN THEY SUPPORT

As part of Employee Engagement and a Defence Equipment &Safety (DE&S) Day, personnel were hosted at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton to offer an insight and demonstrate how their work contributes to front line capability.

Helicopters Operating Centre (Hels OC) was hosted by 846 Naval Air Squadron (NAS). The day consisted of aircraft familiarisation briefings highlighting Capability, Engineering, Safety and Commando Helicopter Force (CHF) operations in the field, at sea, and in adverse weather conditions. This brought to life the challenges that these operations can have and the impact on maintaining the aircraft.

Staff from the OC then spent time familiarising themselves with the actual Merlin Mk3 understanding  how the work they do is embodied to the aircraft, this enabled staff to fully appreciate the challenges that are faced by the front line commands with regards to Infrastructure, engineering and logistics processes.

“Hearing issues helps to understand what they need and we can help to make their lives easier” said Daphne Isgar from DE&S Hels Commercial

Richard Weekes a project manager with the DE&S Project team added “I now really understand and appreciate the frustrations the command has and how they have to deal with Logistics issues”

The overall day proved to be very beneficial and enjoyable and gave those involved a sense of pride to see how they are helping to support the front line command.

Karen Cash from DE&S Technical Publications summed up the visit aptly saying “Today has been brilliant, it really brings it all to life and makes it real”