{"id":60887,"date":"2025-09-22T21:11:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=60887"},"modified":"2025-09-28T21:03:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T19:03:27","slug":"the-visit-of-two-spanish-seahawk-helicopters-to-a-us-navy-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/09\/22\/the-visit-of-two-spanish-seahawk-helicopters-to-a-us-navy-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"The visit of two Spanish Seahawk helicopters to a US Navy ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we have seen recently, the Spanish Navy's \"D\u00e9dalo\" 25 Expeditionary Combat Group (GCE) is training in the United States.<\/p>\n

MH-60R Seahawk: this is the new multi-mission helicopter that the Spanish Navy will receive<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe training of the Spanish Marine Infantry with MV-22B Osprey aircraft in the United States<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

This GCE, made up of the amphibious assault ship (BAA) \"Galicia\" L-51 and the frigates \"Canarias\" F-86 and \"Almirante Juan de Borb\u00f3n\" F-102<\/strong>, has been deployed for days along the East Coast of the United States within the framework of the multinational exercise Unitas 2025<\/strong>, in which several countries from the American continent also participate.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Spanish Navy's Aircraft Flotilla (FLOAN) has assigned three Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters to this GCE:<\/strong> two SH-60F Oceanhawk transport helicopters from the 5th Squadron, operating from the L-51, and an SH-60B anti-submarine helicopter from the 10th Squadron, operating from the F-86.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

FLOAN has 20 SH-60s in total: 12 anti-submarine SH-60Bs operated by the Tenth Squadron<\/strong> (6 SH-60B Block 0s purchased in 1986 and upgraded to the Block 1 Core B version, and 6 SH-60B Block 1s purchased in 2002) and with radio call sign \"Toro\" (Bull), and 8 SH-60F transports operated by the 5th Squadron<\/strong>, with radio call sign \"Morsa\" (Walrus), received between 2017 and 2021 from US military surplus as a temporary solution due to delays of the NH-90 and which replaced the old SH-3D Sea King retired from service in 2022<\/a>. In addition, in 2023 Spain announced the purchase of 8 MH-60R<\/a>, a multi-mission variant intended to replace the SH-60B.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In the last few hours, the US Armed Forces multimedia portal DVIDShun.net has published two series of photos of the two Spanish SH-60Fs deployed on the L-51<\/strong>: a series published by the US Navy<\/a> and one published by the Marines<\/a>. In both cases, we see these two FLOAN aircraft operating on the flight deck of the San Antonio-class amphibious assault ship USS Arlington (LPD 24)<\/strong>, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. In the background of this photo, on the right, the BAA \"Galicia\" L-51 can be seen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In these photos released by the USN and the USMC, we can see two SH-60F helicopters from the Fifth Squadron: the HT.23-14 01-1015<\/strong> (above, an aircraft that arrived in Spain on April 27, 2018 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, being the second SH-60F delivered by the US to Spain, according to Defensa.com<\/a>), and the HT.23-15 01-1016<\/strong> (below, which arrived in Spain on September 30, 2021 aboard a USAF C-17 aircraft along with another SH-60F, the HT.23-16 01-1017, according to Defensa.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Like the rest of the FLOAN aircraft, these helicopters carry a very low-visibility gray livery<\/strong>, with gray markings that are almost indistinguishable from a distance and very small Spanish roundels on the tail and the upper part of the cockpit. However, they include two clearly visible symbols: one of them is a walrus<\/strong>, as we see below these lines, representing the radio callsign used by the Fifth Squadron and inherited from its old SH-3Ds.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The other emblem, even more visible, is a fox painted on the port side of the nose.<\/strong> This is a reference to this model of the Seahawk, known as the SH-60F Foxtrot. The Fifth Squadron adopted a patch with this emblem<\/a> when it received this model of helicopter.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Below we see HT.23-14 01-1015 receiving instructions from an aircraft movement director<\/strong> (recognizable by his yellow vest) on the flight deck of the USS Arlington. These photos were taken on Saturday, September 20, according to information collected by DVIDShub.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Here we see one of the crew members of a Spanish SH-60F<\/strong> on the flight deck of the American ship. He is holding some gifts.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Two Spanish aviators distributing these gifts<\/strong> among the flight deck personnel of the USS Arlington. These are patches from the Fifth Squadron.<\/strong> Exchanging patches during these types of visits is already a tradition among sailors from allied countries.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We conclude with this photo of two U.S. naval aviators monitoring the operations of the Spanish SH-60Fs on the flight deck of the USS Arlington from primary flight control<\/strong> located forward of that deck. I hope their colleagues saved a couple of patches for them...<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

---<\/p>\n

Photos: U.S. Navy \/ U.S. Marine Corps.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we have seen recently, the Spanish Navy’s \u00abD\u00e9dalo\u00bb 25 Expeditionary Combat Group (GCE) is training in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11545],"tags":[10435,18531,17335,24799,1859,10669,25294,10431,319,25345],"class_list":["post-60887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-navy","tag-5a-escuadrilla","tag-aircraft-fleet-of-the-spanish-navy-floan","tag-amphibious-assault-ship-galicia-l-51","tag-expeditionary-combat-group-dedalo-2025","tag-sikorsky-sh-60-seahawk","tag-spanish-navy","tag-unitas-2025","tag-united-states","tag-us-navy","tag-uss-arlington-lpd-24"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-28 21:03:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}