The torpedo is on its way for a seek and destroy mission. Photo by CPO Shane Pashley.

This was the day the tigers and the mouse played very serious games off the NSW coast ...and the tigers won.

Our series of pictures, the best ever taken, show 'Tiger 76', one of the 16 Seahawk helicopters attached to 816 Squadron at HMAS Albatross, launching a Mark 46 ALT (air launched torpedo) just 80 metres above the waves of the Shoalhaven Bight.

As it drops, a parachute deploys steadying the weapon.

Minutes earlier, the helicopter's sensor operator PO Dave Oxley detected an 'enemy submarine', played by a submarine simulator, (also known as a clockwork mouse and about the size of a sonar buoy) zig-zagging its way beneath the ocean.

PO Oxley passed on the bearing to his front seat tactician LEUT Steve Dickfos who in turn called upon the pilot, LEUT Pete Talbot to fly to the location.

Sitting behind them was instructor LCDR Jason Phillips RN and LSPH Richard Prideaux whose task it was to video the action.

When above the spot, LEUT Dickfos released the torpedo.

And the result?

"It was within the parameters of a successful attack," the commanding officer of the squadron, CMDR Andrew Whittaker told Navy News.

The evolution was also recorded by CPO Shane Pashley with a still camera from accompanying helicopter 'Tiger 75'.

He was the sensor operator in his Seahawk.

He was accompanied by pilot LEUT Jamie Humphreys, tactician LEUT Marcus Baxter, instructor LCDR Tim Kerridge and video photographer LSPH Steve Gurnett.

The exercise took more than two hours and began with one of the aircraft dropping the submarine simulator, and for both to find and chase it was just one of the training evolutions carried out by 816 Squadron as it hones the proficiency of aviators before they are deployed on the RAN's FFGs and ANZACs.

Both helicopters dropped a torpedo during the drill.

The spent torpedoes were recovered by the DMS torpedo recovery vessel Tuna while the simulator automatically scuttled itself.

The still images and video will now be used as a training aid for maintainers and other staff attached to the squadron, CMDR Whittaker said.

By Graham Davis