The last Spanish Navy SH-3D ‘Sea Kings’ headed to Peru

On the morning of Wednesday, August 9, the Peruvian Navy ship ‘Pisco’ docked at Rota Naval Base. She is a multipurpose ship of the LPD (Landing Platform Dock) type, built in the SIMA PERU shipyards conceived and designed to operate in naval and amphibious warfare operations, as well as troop and vehicle transport with capability for humanitarian aid missions. The ship, with a length of 122 meters, beam of 22 and draft of 4.9 meters and a maximum speed of 16.5 knots, has a flight deck and a hangar. A distinctive feature is her well deck to transport landing craft in accordance with her amphibious characteristics. With a crew of 157, the ship can transport a contingent of up to 400 Marines.

On this occasion, her mission was to load on board, and transport to Peru, the six SH-3D ‘Sea King’ helicopters of the Spanish Navy which, once their operational life was over, but following an upgrading process, Spain agreed to sell to Peru for a total symbolic price of six hundred euros.

The loading of the helicopters and the spare parts of the aircraft was carried out without incidents. During the stay of the Peruvian ship at the Rota Naval Base, different groups of Peruvian Officers and NCOs visited the facilities of the Aircraft Flotilla, units of the Marine Corps’ Tercio de Armada and the amphibious assault ship LPD ‘Castilla’, a type of ship with which she share capabilities and tasks.

On Sunday, August 13, the ‘Pisco’ set sail from Spain headed to her home base in El Callao, carrying on board a significant part of the history of our naval aviation.