Royal Navy: Royal Marine pilots finish gruelling front-line exercise to prepare for HMS Queen Elizabeth duties

The week-long test prepared 12 naval aviators for various scenarios. Students, instructors, engineers and survival equipment specialists from 846 Naval Air Squadron were deployed to the Okehampton battle camp in Devon for rapid planning and real-time tasking tests.

These trials involved three Merlin Mk4 helicopters as part of Exercise Merlin Storm - a melting pot of relentless operational sorties, where aircraft move from defensive positions into offensive ones. Personnel had their skill, determination and cunning tested as they navigated ever-changing scenarios.

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Members of the squadron had previously worked alongside HMS Queen Elizabeth pilots in the run-up to the exercise with the 845 Naval Air Squadron - where the students will be place - also operating with the carrier. The squadron specialises in training pilots and aircrew for the front line and, for some of Commando 4 Operational Conversion Flight course, this final test comes at the end of more than seven years of flying training.

During the exercise, personnel live in tents atop a hill, which are battered by near gale-force winds. Students are intentionally put out of their comfort zones to prepare them for front-line trials alongside fliers of 845 Naval Air Squadron. They are training to become “Junglies”, a nickname by troops support in the campaign of Malaysia and Borneo in the 1960s.

Lieutenant Commander Tom Morris, 846’s Warfare Officer, said: “Sometimes you’ll find yourself briefing off scribbles on the back of a cigarette packet after plan A, B and C have fallen apart. As Junglie pilots and aircrew, it is paramount to know no plan survives first contact and oftentimes some infamous Junglie cunning must be applied in order to make a sound plan and achieve the task at hand.”

Troops lifted and shifted loads around the moors, transporting troops and fulfilling over tasks. Students only had 90 minutes from receiving the task to deliver full orders - including comprehensive timings and fuel management plans. Captain Elliott Graham, a Royal Marines student pilot, said: “The best part of Exercise Merlin Storm 24 was the real time tasking that had been generated which enabled realistic and challenging scenarios and the ability to utilise the aircraft in an operational capacity for the first time.”

The capabilities of the Merlin helicopters were put on display during the exercise, with over 800 passengers over the course of the four days of flying. Other highlights included squeezing two Merlins into Scraesdon Fort, in Cornwall, to drop off a contingent of 42 Commando Royal Marines, collecting a troop of Royal Marine recruits fresh from receiving their coveted green berets after the infamous 30-miler and performing an in-scenario Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) of cadets as a formation of three aircraft. The students will prepare for their long-awaited wings ceremony at Royal Navy Air Station Yeovilton, before joining 845 Naval Air Squadron.