700 Naval Air Squadron 700 Naval Air Squadron ( 700 NAS ) is a squadron of aircraft in the Royal Navy ’ s Fleet Air Arm . History . 700 NAS was originally formed in January 1940 at RNAS Hatston ( HMS " Sparrowhawk " ) in Orkney in a plan to centralise the operations of the 700 series " Catapult " flights attached to catapult units and to act a pool and Headquarters for all catapult aircraft embarked on battleship s and cruiser s - chiefly the Supermarine Walrus flying boat and Fairey Seafox floatplane . On 21 June 1940 , a Walrus ( " P5666 " ) of 700 Squadron on the cruiser HMS " Manchester " found the German battleship " Scharnhorst " but HMS " Manchester " did not engage . Trailing German capital ships in the lead up to the Battle of the Denmark Strait , Walrus " L2184 " of 700 NAS from was damaged by shellfire from " Prinz Eugen " in the Denmark Strait on 23 May 1941 while still on its catapult . The final successful attack on an enemy submarine by a Walrus was on 11 July 1942 , when Walrus " W2709 " of 700 ( Levant ) NAS sank the Italian submarine " Ondina " , along with the surface vessels South African " Protea " and trawler " Southern Maid " , east of Cyprus . There were at least 5 confirmed enemy submarines sunk or damaged by Walruses during the Second World War , including the Vichy French submarine " Poncelet " which was bombed by Walrus " L2268 " of 700 NAS ( HMS " Devonshire " ) and attacked by HMS " Milford " on 7 November 1940 off the Cameroons . The submarine was damaged and forced to surrender , and later scuttled off the Gulf of Guinea . The crew of Petty Officer P H Parsons , Sub Lt A D Corkhill and N A Evans were all awarded gallantry medals . 700 NAS was disbanded in March 1944 , pilots transferring into 771 Naval Air Squadron , but it was reformed as a Test Pilot School in October 1944 . 700 NAS re - emerged in August 1955 as a Fleet Requirements unit and from 1957 was based out of RNAS Lee - on - Solent to introduce the Whirlwind HAS . 7 . The Squadron carried on trials of de Havilland Sea Vixen s on and HMS " Centaur " during 1958 and from October 1959 formed at Yeovilton with the Saunders Roe P . 531 to investigate what would be needed to introduce a whole new form of helicopter operation to the Fleet – which lead to the Westland Wasp . In October 1960 flight tests of landing and take - offs from HMS " Vengeance " with 27 launchings of the turboprop Fairey Gannet and 34 with the Hawker Sea Hawk . 700 NAS disbanded again at RNAS Yeovilton in July 1961 . However , a number of Intensive Flying Trials Units were subsequently formed under the " 700 NAS " title , to prepare for new aircraft types coming into service . These operated as independent units , each being identified by a suffix letter after the squadron number ( e . g . " 700B " ) . Several of these IFTUs were formed for the introduction of the Westland Wessex , Blackburn Buccaneer , McDonnell Douglas Phantom , Westland Sea King , Westland Lynx and BAe Sea Harrier into the Fleet Air Arm . More recently , the squadron was re - commissioned at RNAS Culdrose in December 1998 as 700M Squadron , with a primary role of testing and evaluating the Merlin HM . 1 helicopter . 700M disbanded on 31 March 2008 , transferring its aircraft and personnel to 824 Naval Air Squadron and also forming a new flight , 824 OEU . The squadron reformed again as 700W NAS in May 2009 at Yeovilton as the Lynx Wildcat Fielding Squadron . 700W expects to receive up to five Wildcats from January 2013 for operational evaluation and conversion training .