Six Months After The Russians Shot Down Ukraine’s Last Naval Rescue Helicopter, the U.K. Is Sending Replacements

The United Kingdom is sending military equipment to Europe.

The Royal Air Force and Royal Navy used to use the 1970s-vintage helicopter. The Ukrainian military will eventually evolve into a NATO-style force with large quantities of European and American weaponry.

The transfer was announced by the U.K. defense secretary. Wallace said that the first ex-Royal Navy Sea Kings were in Ukranian. 10 crews have been trained by the navy in the U.K. It is unclear if the ministry meant 10 total pilots, co-pilots and crew chiefs or 10 three-person crews. It seems more probable.

The Sea Kings, the three HU5 models that were taken over from the Royal Navy by a civilian operator, are enhancingUkraine's search-and- rescue capabilities.

The Ukrainian navy began their war with Russia in February with three search-and- rescue helicopters. Odesa is a strategically important port on the western Black Sea.

One of the Mi-14s could be airworthy. In June of this year, a Russian fighter intercepts a Mi 14 flying over Odesa. Col. Ihor Bedzay was the deputy commander of the Ukrainian navy and the pilot of the Mi-14. Bedazy and the rest of the crew were killed when the helicopter was hit.

The June shoot-down left the Ukrainian navy with no helicopter. There hasn't been any photographic evidence of Mi-14s in flight since then.

The Ukrainian navy is in dire need of replacements. The fleet suffered a lot of losses early in the conflict, but is beginning to recover.

The navy pivoted due to the fact that most of its ships were on the bottom or in Russian hands. Its most important weapons were the aerial drones, bomb boats, and land-based Neptune anti-ship missiles.

Harpoon anti-ship missiles and scores of patrol boats from the United States and other Western allies were acquired by the Ukrainian navy after it sank the missile cruiser Moskva in the Russian Black Sea. The boats formed squadrons that patrol the Dnipro River.

When the Ukrainian army and marine corps liberated the port of Kherson at the mouth of the Dnipro earlier this month, Ukraine's new small-boat navy seemed to become more active along the river mouth.

The Ukrainian navy is regaining it's strength. Perhaps for the first time in six months, it has a rescue helicopter.