Alouette II/HKP 2 – Swedish Air Force – War Thunder Skin

With this I present my third Alouette II skin, this time HKP 2 “02406” from the Swedish Air Force (Flyvapnet). This version includes a damage model and can be added both as a TGA or 4K DDS version, for people who like to use one or the other.

The Aircraft
This aircraft was first delivered to the Swedish Army Air Arm (Arméflyget) were it was used for locating and transporting (damaged) mines. In 1966 it was temporarily registered as civilian aircraft SE-HDE for the Svalbard expedition organized by the Stockholm University during the summer of 1966. Three years later the aircraft was handed over to the Swedish Air Force (Flyvapnet) receiving the military registration 02406.

Based at Aircraft fleet 7 (Flygflottilj 7) in Sønäsäs, the aircraft was primarily used for local military aircraft rescue missions. In 1986 the airframe had amassed over 1,000 flying hours and was handed over to the Swedish Air Force Museum (Flygvapenmuseum) based in Malmslätt, where it still remains on display today.

The HKP 2 in the Swedish Armed Forces
During the 1950’s, the Swedish Armed Forces placed an order With Sud Aviation for a number of Alouette II helicopters to fill the need of a light helicopter.

Most of airframes were to be assembled by Saab and the military redesignated the aircraft as the HKP 2 (Helikopter 2). In 1959 the first batch of 8 aircraft to the Swedish Navy (Marinflyget), with 5 more delivered on a later date. These were based at Berga (Stockholm) and Säve (Gothenburg) and were used for transport and rescue missions until 1985.

The Army Air Arm (Arméflyget) was the second to add HKP 2’s to its inventory, who based its 12 aircraft at the Army Helicopter School (HkpS) in Boden. These were used mainly for flight training and transport assignments, but also other missions, the most notable one being the 1966 Svalbard Expedition during that summer. Organized by the Stockholm University, HkpS provided two HKP 2 and a HKP 3 (Bell 204B) which all received temporary civil registration codes for the duration of the mission. Three years later the remaining 7 Arméflyget HKP 2 were transferred to the Swedish Air Force (Flyvapnet).

Last but not least, the Swedish Air Force (Flyvapnet) had operated 11 HKP 2 since 1959. The first 4 were bought during the initial order by the Armed Forces, while the other 7 were handed over to them by the Army in 1969. All aircraft were based at the aircraft fleets (Flygflottilj) F 1 Hässlö , F 4 Frösön , F 6 Karlsborg , F 7 Sønäsäs , F 8 Barkarby , F 21 Luleå and Robotforsøgsplats Norrland and primarily used for military aircraft rescue missions.

In total, 29 HKP 2 airframes were employed in the Armed Forces, with the last operational airframes in the Swedish Air Force being repaced by the HKP 9 (MBB Bo 105) in 1988.