Sure. We used to refuel helos all the time without them landing. So you could keep both helos up for as long as the crew can stand it. Guess it depends on what you need.

Thanks for the reply EW3. I understand it is possible to have both up at a time, but wondered if it was accepted practice that you could have both at a time.(I'm not explaining myself very well am I!...sorry about that) I just wonder, in the interests of safety, if only one is "allowed" up at a time, to keep the flight deck clear in case of an emergency landing?(mechanical failure or some such?) This leads onto "why have two rotary wing assets?", which I suppose is explained by availability. In an intensive, ongoing (e.g wartime)ASW operation, one helicopter would be serviced, and air crew rested, while the other conducted ASW ops. Any more thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I would have thought that if you're on an ASW mission, then the 3 way split between the ship and both helos is critical to fast track a solution. "more is better"

and much more even better still. The new LCS (at least the GD version) should be able to keep two choopers up, as well as use UVAVs (or whatever they call an unmanned helo) to at least drop sonobuoys, and also have off ship resources like the WLD-1 pinging away. One LCS could "surround" a sub. ;)

Been done for a while. The Canadian Iroquois class (sometimes called Tribal-class) destroyers were have been operating two Sea Kings apiece since they where completed in the early 70's. One of the tricks they used pull it off was to place the flight deck as close as possible to the center ship to minimise pitch and roll during landing operations. Another was to have tracks for the Beartrap system leading to each of the hangars.

Thanks Librarian, but the crux of the question was "Is it common PRACTICE to have two helicopters UP at the same time, or do those ships that carry two helicopters only rotate one airborne at a time?" EW3 and GF answered quite nicely.(I think I was being too conservative in my understanding of Air-ops from Destroyers/Frigates) You do raise an interesting point though, does the Bear trap system speed up availability of the aircraft? (i.e you can only have one chopper on the flight deck at a time, until it takes off. Does the Bear Trap speed up availability of the second chopper?)

My mistake about the general subject. My impression is that the Bear Trap system was designed to make it easier, not necessarily faster, to land helicopters on small warships (the earlier 2000-3000 ton Annapolis class operated a Sea King) in the North Atlantic in winter. Now that might mean it would make it easier to operate two helicopters at the same time, but I suspect that would be a side effect of the system. I will investigate further, as I know someone who was involved in designing the Iroquois-class.

Thanks Librarian, it'd be interesting to find out more about this type of aircraft handling system. I only ever served aboard a Type 42, which only carried 1 helicopter (and no handling system apart from a powered trolley type thing?) Budgie's were never really my field.

Sorry about the delay but my source was not as useful as I hoped. The gist of what I got, was that he seemed to think that having two helos up was relatively normal procedure. I will put in the caveat he seemed to be talking about hunter/killer pairs, which is an outmoded method. I think I will check back with him as he had just undergone chemo and may have been a mite out of it. I did find this website about the Beartrap. http://www.readyayeready.com/timeline/1960s/beartrap/

Ah, I see, Beartrap is a landing system.(Like the harpoon on a Lynx) I thought it was some kind of handling system for maneouvering aircraft on the flight deck. Do you know, off hand, if it is just in the RCN or are there other users? Thanks for the info Librarian, and hope your mate makes a speedy recovery. Very Interesting