Norwegian army to receive decommissioned British Seaking Mk.4 helicopter.

A Sea King Mk.4 helicopter, currently stored in HMS Sultan’s helicopter graveyard, is to be gifted to the Norwegian military, Forces Network reports. An RAF CH-47 Chinook airlifted the retired Sea King and flew it as an underslung load to the Sea Mounting Centre at Marchwood in Hampshire this18 December. It will then be shipped to Bardufoss, Norway.

Westland Seaking Mk.4 (Picture source: Wikimedia)

The Seaking Mk.4 had its engines stripped out and specialists loaded it with ballast before transporting it 30 miles from HMS Sultan to Marchwood Military Port. The heliopter is a gift to celebrate the 50th anniversary next year of Exercise Clockwork. For half a century personnel from the British Armed Forces have travelled to Norway to take part in a cold weather survival course in the middle of the Arctic winter. The aircraft will continue the last slug of her journey in February when she will be transported by ferry to her final destination in Norway. She will then become a gate guardian at Bardufoss, in northern Norway, over 1,500 kilometres from the capital, Oslo. Temperatures during the winter can plunge to -25 degrees centigrade.