Naval Strike Wing
element of the Royal Navy and Joint Force Harrier
The Naval Strike Wing (NSW) was a Fleet Air Arm flying unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). It consisted of elements of both 800 and 801 Naval Air Squadrons, but operated as a single unit. It was last equipped with Harrier GR9 V/STOL strike aircraft, as part of Joint Force Harrier (JFH), at RAF Cottesmore. Its role was close air support and at the time was the only front line fast jet unit for the Royal Navy.
History
The Naval Strike Wing (NSW) was formed on 9 March 2007, following the re-forming of 800 Naval Air Squadron in 2006 and 801 Naval Air Squadron on 9 March 2007. It included elements of both squadrons, amalgamated into a single operational unit for deployment either on land or aboard the Royal Navy's Invincible-class light aircraft carriers. Equipped with the GR.7 and GR.9 variants of the British Aerospace Harrier II, a second-generation vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) jet aircraft, it was based at RAF Cottesmore. NSW was the Naval component of Joint Force Harrier.
Operational deployments
The Naval Strike Wing undertook operational deployments to Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick and also maintained the Royal Navy's Harrier carrier capability through deployments aboard Invincible-class light aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and other exercises. In October 2007, the Wing deployed to Kandahar Airfield as part of the British force package for Operation Herrick.
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This entry incorporates text from “Naval Strike Wing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.