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On the heels of the 2015 NHA Symposium, this summer’s Rotor Review issue brings the joint operations of today’s Naval Helicopter Community to your fingertips. This issue’s Focus, “Joint Environment: Afloat and Ashore”, highlights the Naval Helicopter operations happening now across the world. It seems that our service has been saying things like “joint is the future” for a decade or more, and our community is at the forefront of just that. Operation GREEN FLAG is one of the most well-known training exercises in our community. LT Adam Beauregard’s recount of this year’s operation proves the extreme forward-leaning nature our community’s MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters, specifically how they are vital to restricted waters transit threats, and our joint forces’ training to defend the high value unit. HSM-73’s participation in FIFTH Fleet’s semi-annual SHAMAL exercise is another great example of the integration our helicopter fleet is proving in the community. The Battle Cats of HSM-73 trained with one of the most lethal helicopters known to rotary wing aviation, the AH-64D Apache. LTJG Sturgill’s Focus article highlights the excitement of the two-day SHAMAL exercise, including the joint live-fire and oil terminal defense training events. Our editorial staff is also proud to include an article with an international twist as part of this issue’s Focus section, after receiving LCpl Fatmeh Saad’s retelling of VMM-261’s MV-22 Osprey interoperability tests aboard the Royal Netherlands Navy warship Karel Doorman. Plus, that awesome cover designed by NHA’s Design Editor, George Hopson, serves as a perfect intro to LT Mark Trask’s BORTAC article, which tells just how hard our Navy-Coast Guard team is working in the Border Protection mission. As always, our Feature section is packed full of great content, including highlights of important safety changes following a deadly Osprey crash, the future of NVDs used across our community, and the uncovering of a well-known but unfixed challenge to MH-60R Seahawk crews (and probably most helicopter variants): barometric altimeter error. Thanks for reading the aforementioned articles and all of the other content included in this Summer’s issue. We hope you enjoy it!
LT Ash Preston, USN |
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