The Westland Sea King was developed from the American Sikorsky S-61/ H-3 Sea King, after Westland concluded a licence agreement for the production of the type in 1959. The Westland Sea King HAS.Mk 1 was developed as an ASW aircraft for the Royal Navy, & 56 were delivered between 1969 & 1972. Compared with the US Navy's Sea King HSS-2s, the HAS.Mk 1 was a much better ASW helicopter, with a dunking sonar & a dorsal radar. The HAS.Mk 1 was later modified to HAS.Mk 2 standard, with more powerful Rolls-Royce Gnome engines & improved equipment. 21 were also built from new.

A SAR version, the HAR.Mk 3 was acquired by the RAF. With capacity for over 20 rescuees, including stretchers, the HAR.Mk 3 was well suited to SAR operations, & is used extensively by RAF Mountain Rescue. Another non-naval version of the Sea King is the HC.Mk 4, used by the Royal Marines as an Assault Transport. It includes the usual shipboard features such as folding blades & tail, & is also fitted with fixed landing gear, & a capacity for either 27 troops or 6,000lbs (2722kg) of cargo.

The HAS.Mk 5 is the current Royal Navy ASW version of the Sea King, with dramatically uprated avionics compared to the HAS.Mk 2. All of the HAS.Mk 2 Sea Kings were upgraded to HAS.Mk 5 standard, & 17 were built from new. The Royal Navy also operates several Sea King AEW helicopters, equipped with a large rotating Thorn-EMI Searchwater radar on the side of the fuselage. The Westland Sea King has been exported successfully to 8 countries, including the Norwegian Air Force (Sea King Mk 43s) & Royal Australian Navy (Sea King Mk 50s).

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