AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 286 / 287

Plate 286 of 287 · Modern age · Shipborne maritime attack and reconnaissance helicopter

Leonardo AW159 Wildcat

Wildcat HMA2, ZZ533, painted as ZZ533, a Leonardo (AgustaWestland) AW159 Wildcat HMA2 of the Fleet Air Arm’s 815 Naval Air Squadron, RNAS Yeovilton, flying with HMS Westminster’s flight: the Lynx’s Yeovil-built successor, with the Lynx’s cabin behind a longer nose carrying the Seaspray 7400E radar in a chin radome and an electro-optical turret on the nose shelf, two LHTEC CTS800 turboshafts in bulged cowlings with outward-facing intakes and upswept exhausts, a four-bladed BERP IV main rotor, a new tail boom with a swept tail pylon, the four-bladed tail rotor on the port side and a tailplane with large end plates, sponson pods either side of the cabin and wheeled tricycle undercarriage with a deck-lock harpoon: plain medium grey overall with low-visibility roundels, pale grey ‘ROYAL NAVY’ and ‘ZZ533’ on the tail boom, black ‘HMS WESTMINSTER’ on the radome, the ship’s crest on the nose, red and white danger triangles and a yellow rescue arrow, as photographed at ILA Berlin in June 2019 (shape from a published three-view checked against photographs of ZZ533 and ZZ529; main rotor parked at 45 degrees; no weapons fitted, as in the photographs).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZZ533, a Leonardo (AgustaWestland) AW159 Wildcat HMA2 of the Fleet Air Arm’s 815 Naval Air Squadron, RNAS Yeovilton, flying with HMS Westminster’s flight: the Lynx’s Yeovil-built successor, with the Lynx’s cabin behind a longer nose carrying the Seaspray 7400E radar in a chin radome and an electro-optical turret on the nose shelf, two LHTEC CTS800 turboshafts in bulged cowlings with outward-facing intakes and upswept exhausts, a four-bladed BERP IV main rotor, a new tail boom with a swept tail pylon, the four-bladed tail rotor on the port side and a tailplane with large end plates, sponson pods either side of the cabin and wheeled tricycle undercarriage with a deck-lock harpoon: plain medium grey overall with low-visibility roundels, pale grey ‘ROYAL NAVY’ and ‘ZZ533’ on the tail boom, black ‘HMS WESTMINSTER’ on the radome, the ship’s crest on the nose, red and white danger triangles and a yellow rescue arrow, as photographed at ILA Berlin in June 2019 (shape from a published three-view checked against photographs of ZZ533 and ZZ529; main rotor parked at 45 degrees; no weapons fitted, as in the photographs). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Wildcat HMA2 & AH1); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Wildcat HMA2, ZZ533 modelled here.

History

The Wildcat HMA2

By the early 2000s the Lynx had flown from Royal Navy ships and with the Army Air Corps for a quarter of a century, and the Ministry of Defence wanted a successor that kept what worked. Under the Future Lynx programme it ordered a new helicopter from AgustaWestland in 2006, built at Yeovil like the Lynx before it. The design kept the Lynx’s general layout and cabin but almost everything else was new: a longer nose, a new tail boom with a swept tail pylon, two LHTEC CTS800 engines in place of the Gems, a digital cockpit and a strengthened airframe. The first, ZZ400, flew at Yeovil on 12 November 2009, and the type was named the Wildcat.

The order was later cut to 62 helicopters: 34 Wildcat AH1s for the Army, for battlefield reconnaissance, and 28 Wildcat HMA2s for the Royal Navy. The Army’s Wildcats entered service in 2014 and the Navy’s followed in 2015, to be flown by 815 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton. The HMA2 carries a Seaspray 7400E radar in a radome under its nose and an electro-optical turret above it, and each one goes to sea as a ship’s flight, a small detachment of aircrew and engineers embarked on a frigate or destroyer.

At sea the Wildcat searches for surface ships and carries Stingray torpedoes and depth charges against submarines. It was later armed with two new missiles: the light Martlet, made by Thales in Belfast, of which it can carry 20, against small fast boats and drones, and MBDA’s heavier Sea Venom against warships. Wildcats have flown from destroyers and frigates around the world, including the Red Sea and the Gulf, and from the Navy’s aircraft carriers with the Carrier Strike Group. They replaced the Lynx in Royal Navy service in 2017.

This airframe

Wildcat HMA2 ZZ533

ZZ533The airframe modelled

ZZ533 is one of the Royal Navy’s 28 Wildcat HMA2s, all flown by 815 Naval Air Squadron from RNAS Yeovilton and sent to sea as ships’ flights. No Wildcat is in a museum, so the model shows a serving helicopter: ZZ533 as it was displayed at the ILA Berlin air show in June 2019, flying with the flight of the Type 23 frigate HMS Westminster. Photographs from that show catch it from both sides and close up, in plain medium grey with low-visibility roundels, ‘ROYAL NAVY’ and ‘ZZ533’ in pale grey on the tail boom, ‘HMS WESTMINSTER’ in black on the radome, the ship’s crest on the nose, red and white danger triangles and a yellow rescue arrow. It later wore a two-tone disruptive camouflage, which is left off. Its shape comes from a published three-view checked against photographs of ZZ533 and of ZZ529, another 815 Squadron Wildcat; the main rotor is shown spread and parked at 45 degrees, and no weapons are fitted, as in the photographs.

Where to see one

Not on charge

Wildcats fly with the Fleet Air Arm’s 815 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton and with the Army Air Corps, and none is in a museum. The Fleet Air Arm Museum next to Yeovilton airfield holds the Lynx it replaced.

All 287 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.