Country United Kingdom Role Rotary Aircrew Trg | Branch Royal Air Force Part of DHFS, 22 (trg) Gp | |
Active 17 Oct 1914 (RNAS) - 22 Jan 1920
9 Apr 1920 - 16 May 1921
1 Jan 1929 - 12 Jun 1945
1 Oct 1946 - 31 Jul 1964
1 Sep 1964 - present Base RAF Valley plus detached Flights | ||
No. 202 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is the maritime and mountains training element of the Defence Helicopter Flying School. operated the Sea King HAR.3 in the Search and rescue role at three stations in the northern half of the United Kingdom. It was originally formed as one of the first aeroplane squadrons of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) before it became part of the RAF.
Contents
Formation and the First World War
No. 202 Squadron was formed -along with the entire RAF- on 1 April 1918 by renumbering No. 2 Squadron RNAS. It was originally formed as one of the first aeroplane squadrons of the RNAS on 17 October 1914. It served on the Western Front during the First World War, carrying out reconnaissance and bombing missions from bases in Belgium and France before being disbanded on 22 January 1920.
The interbellum
No. 202 was reformed for a brief existence as fleet co-operation unit between 9 Apr 1920 and 16 May 1921 and some eight years later the squadron came to live again when No. 481 Flight, operating the Fairey III floatplane at Malta was re-numbered as 202 Squadron in 1929, continuing to fly patrols over the Mediterranean Sea throughout the 1930s, being re-equipped with Supermarine Scapa flying boats in 1935.
Second World War
During the Second World War, 202 Squadron flew anti-submarine patrols from RAF Gibraltar with Saro London, Consolidated Catalina and Short Sunderland flying boats and some Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers until 1944, when it moved with their Catalinas to RAF Castle Archdale, Northern Ireland, disbanding there on 12 June 1945.
Weather Reconnaissance
202 Squadron reformed by renumbering 518 Squadron as a Weather Reconnaissance squadron at RAF Aldergrove near Belfast on 1 October 1946, flying converted Handley Page Halifax GR.6 & A.9 bombers on long range meteorological flights over the North Atlantic (codenamed "Bismuth"). It re-equipped with the more modern Handley Page Hastings Met.1 from November 1950, continuing in this role until disbanding on 31 July 1964.
Search and Rescue
No. 202 Squadron was reformed on 1 September 1964 by the renumbering of No. 228 Squadron RAF at RAF Leconfield. The squadron began operating in its search and rescue role using the Westland Whirlwind HAR.10 helicopter with flights at RAF Acklington, RAF Ouston, RAF Coltishall and RAF Leuchars. The squadron moved to RAF Finningley during September 1976 with flights at RAF Boulmer, RAF Leconfield, RAF Coltishall, RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Brawdy. The squadron re-equipped with Westland Sea King HAR.3s from July 1978 (operating the Westland Wessex HAR.2 as an intermediate type while its Sea Kings were sent to the Falklands War), moving its HQ to RAF Boulmer on the closure of Finningley in 1989, and then to RAF Valley during April 2008 where the HQ is co-located with the SAR Force HQ and HQ 22 Squadron.
The primary role of RAF search and rescue is the recovery of downed military aviators, but in peacetime its aircraft are available all year round for use in civilian distress incidents. Since 1973, over 95% of the rescues carried out by 202 Squadron have been civilian incidents. The rescues carried out over the years by 202 Squadron have included a wide variety of incidents involving rescuing casualties from aircraft, fishing trawlers, ferries, oil rigs, mountainous terrain, cliffs and the waters surrounding Scotland, an example being the 1988 accident on the oil rig Piper Alpha.
The squadron usually had two aircraft at each of its detached flight locations:
The squadron maintained a 15-minutes readiness state during daylight hours and a 45-minutes readiness state during the hours of darkness. The Search and Rescue fleet of Sea Kings were fitted with a video/infrared detection pod, which is similar to the equipment used by police helicopters, to help search for casualties.
Disbandment
In 2006 the Labour government announced its intentions to privatise the search and rescue (SAR) helicopter service in the UK. A ten-year contract worth £1.6 billon was signed in March 2013 with Bristow Helicopters who would run the service from 2015 with new AgustaWestland AW189 and Sikorsky S-92 helicopters. SAR helicopter operations ceased in staged handovers from March through September 2015.
Reformation
No. 202 Squadron was reformed in May 2016 as the maritime and mountains training element of the Defence Helicopter Flying School based at RAF Valley in Anglesey and operating the Griffin helicopter.