As part of the new military aid package, Great Britain will hand over three Westland WS-61 Sea King helicopters to Ukraine. BBC writes about this with reference to British Defense Minister Ben Wallace.

One of the helicopters has already arrived in Ukraine. The aid package also includes 10,000 artillery shells.

During the past six weeks, the Ukrainian military has been training in Great Britain to pilot and maintain the Sea King. Previously, these vehicles were in service with the Royal Air Force and the Navy. The last Sea King was decommissioned in 2018.

In addition, recently it became known that Great Britain provides the Armed Forces with modern Brimstone 2 missiles Dual Mode, not just the old Brimstone. This model has a significantly longer maximum range (in the words of the manufacturer “an increase of more than 200%)”, as well as improved homing and aerodynamics, as well as new software.

The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British version of the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter that was produced under license from 1969 to 1995. This version had the new Rolls-Royce Gnome engine, a British-made anti-submarine warfare system and a new computerized control system. The Commando variant (1979) was used in the role of transport and landing. Over 25 years, 344 helicopters were built in Great Britain.

General specifications of the Sea King HAS.5 model
Crew – 2-4 people
Length – 17.02 m
Height – 5.13 m
Main rotor diameter – 18.90 m
Empty weight – 6,373 kg
Maximum take-off weight – 9707 kg
Propulsion – 2 × Rolls-Royce H.1400-2 Gnome with a capacity of 1660 hp. (1240 kW) each
Cruising speed – 207 km/h
Service ceiling – 1230 km
Rate of climb – 10.3 m/s
Armament: 4 × Mark 44, Mark 46 or Sting Ray torpedoes or 4 × depth charges; door machine gun of any caliber