Westland Lynx versions (Army)

[Lynx7]

Ok, heres a breakdown of the different versions of Army (or non Navy) Lynx. This will be a lot shorter than the navy review as there are far fewer export customers (in fact no export customers.......Hmm that should be a clue to why no one else in the world has bought an army version of Lynx )

I've broken down the main roles Army Lynx can be fitted with. I'll explain each a bit later on.

Table 1

Table 2 (v1.1)

Explanation of Table 1;

The majority of columns are self explanitory and work the same way as in the Navy table. The Role column is the main difference.

1 TOW - TOW missiles (provision for 8), TOW roof sight.

2 NI - Northern Ireland Op BANNER role. We had a variety of role fits during Op BANNER but essentially it consisted of ALQ144 Infra-Red jammer, IRCM (Infra-Red Counter Measures) exhaust bins and a 7.62mm GPMG fitted to the stbd cabin and quite often the Fast Rope Frame fitted to the port NATO FLange.

3. DAS - Defensive Aids Suite. This can be broken in to 4 parts

a) Radar Warning Receiver

b ) Missile Warning System (AN/AAR 47) and latterly the MAWS (Missile Approach and Warning System -the AN/AAR 57). Be aware that the sensors are fitted in different places depending on what type it is and whether its on a Mk7 or Mk9/9A.

c) IRCM (Infra-red Counter measures) and can consist of the IRCM exhaust bins and/or the ALQ144 Infra-red jammer (disco ball)

d) CMDS Counter measure dispensing system - Chaff and Flares. Fitted to the back of the skids on a Mk7 but are mounted on what looks like bits of scaffold just aft of the cabin doors (on the NATO flanges) on the AH9/9A.

4. IRJ - ALQ144. I've split this aside from 'DAS' because as with the IRCM, we can fly with just one piece of the DAS or a mix and match. It depends on the threat and theatre and you will see aircraft with some or all of the bits fitted. The AH9 was originally fitted with DIRCM and has a different mounting.

5. IRCM exhausts.

6. CSW 7.62mm - Crew Served Weapon. 7.62mm GPMG Air role. The original gun mount could only be fitted to the right hand cabin door side but the current mount (past 20 years) can be fitted either side or on both sides simultaneously.

7. CSW M3M - .50cal M3M Browning Heavy Machine Gun. It fits on the common stores mount that the RN use and can be fitted either side or rarely both sides. The system has a large ammo cradle that fits 1200 rounds. This sits behind the front seats and runs the full width of the cabin. The RN dont use this ammo solution but use a smaller single ammo mount fitted to the rear right of the cabin or they just use the aux ammo mount on the lower side of the gun mount. We dont use this cos its pants and isnt really an act of war - only 200 rounds

The long and short when it comes to Army Lynx (especially the more prolific AH7) is you can pretty much stick what you want on. If you wish to be time and/or theatre specific, you will need to make sure it has all the required role kit. For example, if you wish to do a Op GRANBY Lynx, you'll need TOW, IRCM exhausts, IRJ, sand filters on the intakes but no chaff or flares (we didnt have them then) but it could have been a Mk1 GT with new engines and tail but with old tail rotor or just an old knackered AH1. Another thing to bear in mind is the roof windows. Originally we had the TOW roof sight fitted above the port side but when this wasnt fitted, it would have a flat blanking plate fitted (replicated in the Airfix kit). Seeing how we dont have TOW fitted at all now, most if not all Mk7s have had a window fitted (as per the naval versions and the same as the right side). The AH9/9A have always had 2 windows fitted. (as a point of interest, in Northern Ireland, the blanking plate was a round piece of clear perspex)

'Old school' AH1 with TOW fitted. No Mk7s were ever painted black/green. We started painting green/grey around 1988.

AH1 GT. Gulf fit. Note new engines and tail rotor but old steel blades.

'Slick' AH7 with only RWR sensors fitted.

AH7 fitted with TOW roof sight and pylons and ALQ-144 IRJ

AH7 'fully roled'. ALQ144, IRCM, sand filter intakes, Chaff and flare dispensers, MWS (note that the older AN/AAR 47 rear sensors are mounted midway along tail boom. Later AN/AAR 57 rear sensors are mounted lower aft fuselage)

AH7 with Fast Rope Frame fitted

'Slick' AH9

Same aircraft post conversion to AH9A. Note chaff/flare dispensers just aft of the cabin door (Door gunner is holding the upper one!!)

AH9A fully tooled up. M3M, MX10 and full DAS.

Qatar police Mk28. Based on an AH1

Lynx 3. Wish we'd bought in to it as with development could have been an excellent aircraft and saved us some of the consternation we're having with Wildcat....

Edited April 6, 2012 by Lynx7

[DaveJL]

Nice round up Tony, thanks for sharing. Would you have a few more pics from 5 Reg machines if possible? I fancy building a SF support machine

Cheers

Dave

Edited April 3, 2012 by DaveJL

[Lynx7]

Nice round up Tony, thanks for sharing. Would you have a few more pics from 5 Reg machines if possible? I fancy building a SF support machine

Cheers

Dave

Err, no photos of that one mate

[DaveJL]

Err, no photos of that one mate

Haha, of course, silly me!

Any more of the fast rope frame?

[Andy K]

Wow! What an excellent post. Thank you very much!

[Dave Fleming]

This will be a lot shorter than the navy review as there are far fewer export customers (in fact no export customers.......Hmm that should be a clue to why no one else in the world has bought an army version of Lynx )

Qatar police Mk28. Based on an AH1

Mmmm, shome mistook surely...?

Thanks Lynx7, very, very useful post.

[Lynx7]

Mmmm, shome mistook surely...?

Thanks Lynx7, very, very useful post.

Technically, yes there was an export customer for a skidded Lynx but the reality was, they broke them almost instantly, couldn't fly them and gave them back for a full refund. I think they had them for a few months and no more! I heard a story that they thought the aircraft were impossible to fly. What they hadn't done is switch the number 1 engine from accessory drive (disconnected from the gearbox drive and is used initially as an 'APU' to run up the AC and hydraulics) to Main drive (on switching in to main drive, an actuator connects drive from the engine to the gearbox to enable both engines powering the blades) so they were trying to fly the aircraft on one engine, in the desert with loads of poo-poo bolted to them (air con etc). You could barely fly an AH1 with both engines in North West Germany let alone in those conditions on one engine. They also didnt realise how to switch on the AFCS (auto flight computer) so even when theyd managed to struggle in to the air, it flew like a bitch on crack. I'm guessing Westlands customer care wasnt up to much in the late 70s....

[heloman1]

Hi Tony, Many thanks for your efforts, it's all coming together like a well concieved plan. Was the fast roping frame a local mod or did it come fromWestlands, it looks like something off the back of a Land Rover! But not mine!

Me think I must ditch the idea of a span of 72nd Lynx's in favour of a few good 48th scale models but then what to do with all the 72nd decas!

Thanks for sharing your expetese with us all.

Colin on the Africa Station

[sniperUK]

Excellent refs Tony, got to say I am loving building this one at the minute, and using this guide quite a few more will follow, I think Damien may be an option.

[Jens]

Thanks Lynx7! These Lynx guides are great!

I will try to contribute with some pictures. Perhaps you can use them to explain some things.

The few Army/RM Lynx I have seen were in-theatre. This is one of them:

Had I known then that Airfix would release this variant I would have taken more pictures of it.

Jens

[Shaun]

What would be the common cabin arrangement for a Lynx AH7 on door gun training?

Lynx are quite common on the local range firing door guns from the Starboard side door, I may build one like this.

Shaun.

[Inverted]

Awesome references thank you!

Quick q. Can you confirm the blade colours? Airfix calls out a dark green for the main blades and the tail rotor. Is this correct?

[Jakub Cikhart]

Another great topic !

One small correction to the table. You should add the "change main rotor" also to the AH MK.1GT version, as the Gulf war birds had (guessing from all the pics I have) the old metal blades.

Thanks once again for all the effort on deciphering the versions of both Army and Navy Lynxes !!

EDIT: also, there is another one small mistake in the table: in the AH MK.1GT version, the tail stabilisator should be long (1) and not short (2) - also, judging from the pics I have.

EDIT 2: Here is the promised table both for HAS.3GM and AH.1/AH.1GT - Gulf war Lynxes

Regards

Jakub

Edited April 6, 2012 by Jakub Cikhart

[Lynx7]

Another great topic !

One small correction to the table. You should add the "change main rotor" also to the AH MK.1GT version, as the Gulf war birds had (guessing from all the pics I have) the old metal blades.

Thanks once again for all the effort on deciphering the versions of both Army and Navy Lynxes !!

EDIT: also, there is another one small mistake in the table: in the AH MK.1GT version, the tail stabilisator should be long (1) and not short (2) - also, judging from the pics I have.

EDIT 2: Here is the promised table both for HAS.3GM and AH.1/AH.1GT - Gulf war Lynxes

Regards

Jakub

Thanks Jakub, an error on my part re your second point regarding tail stab (table now changed). I had steel main blades already for your first point. Looked at your site and its cracking mate. One amendment you may wish to consider is at the bottom for the 'Additions for both'. You say the Army Airfix kit doesnt have the 'bonk' (MRHVA - Main rotor head vibration absorber). It does have it included and you may see some pics with it fitted or removed. We went through various phases of having it fitted or removed depending on the flavour of the month or what Westland advice was at the time!

What would be the common cabin arrangement for a Lynx AH7 on door gun training?

Lynx are quite common on the local range firing door guns from the Starboard side door, I may build one like this.

By default, the GPMG is fitted to the right hand side but it can be fitted either side or both.

Awesome references thank you!

Quick q. Can you confirm the blade colours? Airfix calls out a dark green for the main blades and the tail rotor. Is this correct?

I use Tamiya AS06 Olive Drab spray can for both main and tail rotors and its pretty much spot on to the real thing.

[Shaun]

By default, the GPMG is fitted to the right hand side but it can be fitted either side or both.

Would the troop seats be fitted or removed?

Another question, is TOW still in use?

A quick search on Airliners net show the sight removed on a lot of pics?

Shaun

[Julien]

If people are in a sharing mood with lynx pics then I would welcome submissions to the Navy & Army threads I have running in the walkaround section.

Julien

[Jakub Cikhart]

Thanks Jakub, an error on my part re your second point regarding tail stab (table now changed). I had steel main blades already for your first point. Looked at your site and its cracking mate. One amendment you may wish to consider is at the bottom for the 'Additions for both'. You say the Army Airfix kit doesnt have the 'bonk' (MRHVA - Main rotor head vibration absorber). It does have it included and you may see some pics with it fitted or removed. We went through various phases of having it fitted or removed depending on the flavour of the month or what Westland advice was at the time!

Hey mate,

thanks for correcting the MRHVA - I dont have the kits and just found the scans of the instructions at Airfix Tribute forum. Will update my table ASAP.

EDIT: page is updated. enjoy !!

another Lynx identified as AH.1GT courtesy of Fightercontrol forum (that "reverse" gear cover in grey color is interestning):

Edited April 6, 2012 by Jakub Cikhart

[Lynx7]

Hey mate,

thanks for correcting the MRHVA - I dont have the kits and just found the scans of the instructions at Airfix Tribute forum. Will update my table ASAP.

EDIT: page is updated. enjoy !!

another Lynx identified as AH.1GT courtesy of Fightercontrol forum (that "reverse" gear cover in grey color is interestning):

Yep, AH1GTs are fairly easy to recognise. New tail, old main blades.

Would the troop seats be fitted or removed?

Another question, is TOW still in use?

A quick search on Airliners net show the sight removed on a lot of pics?

Seats can be fitted or removed. Really depends on what role/job was being carried out. If the 6 man seat is fitted, it will be fitted 'front to rear' (seats facing out to the side) as opposed to athwartships (seats facing front and rear).

We binned TOW around 8-10 years ago. You may find photos later than that with aircraft still having the TOW roof sight fitted. The sight was pretty good so we kept them for a while. All removed now though and most if not all Mk7s now have two windows in the roof as opposed to the left having the blanking. But due to the mod state of all aircraft, it really depends if its been changed or not. The Army Lynx fleet is made up of about 60 different sub-versions! (and no doubt the Navy fleet is the same too). The last Army Lynx to fly with TOW booms fitted was the Blue Eagles Lynx. This carried the booms up to about 4 years ago but now have been completely removed (reason they stayed on so long was the Lynx display routine was only cleared WITH TOW booms fitted so had to undergo trials and clearance to display without them). You may also see the occasional Lynx from Middle Wallop fly with what looks like booms fitted but you will find these will be aircraft from 667 (D&T) Sqn (Development and Trials - my previous unit). We tend to use the boom mounting to bolt random bits of trials kit to the cabs.

[Haggis]

The plural of Lynx is Lynx. Same idea as sheep and fish ;-)

[Shaun]

Seats can be fitted or removed. Really depends on what role/job was being carried out. If the 6 man seat is fitted, it will be fitted 'front to rear' (seats facing out to the side) as opposed to athwartships (seats facing front and rear).

We binned TOW around 8-10 years ago.

Cheers for the info.

Anyone got any nice detail shots of the cabin and what are the main colours seen in the cabin area?

Shaun.

[Lynx7]

Cheers for the info.

Anyone got any nice detail shots of the cabin and what are the main colours seen in the cabin area?

Shaun.

Sound proofing - 40% olive drab, 40% gun metal and 20% of RAF Dark Green.

Cabin floor - Humbrol 87 Matt steel grey (or an approximate)

6 man and 3 man seats - Humbrol 25

Instrument, overhead and interseat consoles, inner screen and door frames - matt black

[Shaun]

Super shots, all you need to paint the cabin!!, Thanks Lynx 7

Having studied a few shots on Airliners net, is surprising how many aerial fits there are.

This one has got a few more interesting ones, wonder what the reason is?

Lynx ZE378

Shaun.

[KoenL]

Super shots, all you need to paint the cabin!!, Thanks Lynx 7

Having studied a few shots on Airliners net, is surprising how many aerial fits there are.

This one has got a few more interesting ones, wonder what the reason is?

Lynx ZE378

Shaun.

It's a 657 Squadron Lynx. The squadron is part of the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing so I assume the fit is related to that duty.

Koen

Edited April 7, 2012 by KoenL

[WARDOG]

EXCELLENT Stuff, Tony!

Good on you! I'll be sure to reference this info when I do my Royal Marines bird in 72nd.

Cheers,

WARDOG

[Andrew Perren]

Another Lynx AH7 query for the experts.

The kit version A shows fitment of the GPMG's in both doors. Is this fit allowable / typical ?

I have started my AH7 build and have drilled out the holes on both sides for the gun mounts but ref pics seem to only show gun fitted to one side or the other.

Can I fit mine with guns both sides without a problem ?

I have also chosen to use the non amoured seats because they look better.