A new group of UK pilots are trained and ready to fly the UK’s cutting-edge F-35 fighter jet which is now cleared for take-off from HMS Queen Elizabeth following successful trials using the ski-ramp design featured on the UK flagship.
A new group of UK pilots are trained and ready to fly the UK’s cutting-edge F-35 fighter jet which is now cleared for take-off from HMS Queen Elizabeth following successful trials using the ski-ramp design featured on the UK flagship, Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin announced at the House of Commons Defence Select Committee this afternoon.
Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin said:
“With a new team of British pilots completing their training and the F-35 cleared to fly from the carrier, the momentum continues for this game-changing jet. These milestones come as our pilots prepare to return from the States, ready for next year’s unforgettable flight trials from the deck of the nation’s new flagship.”
The UK currently has 12 F-35 jets out in the United States where they are being tested ahead of flight trials from the Royal Navy’s carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, next year. Two more aircraft are set to be delivered by the end of the year.
The Defence Minister announced that the F-35 Integrated Test Force, which includes five British pilots, has now successfully completed ski ramp trials. That milestone clears the aircraft for take-off from the deck of the Carrier.
Speaking about the jet, Squadron Leader Andy Edgell, part of that Integrated Test Force, said:
“She’s marvellous. She has an incredible amount of thrust but it’s more than just brawn that makes her so fantastic to fly – it’s the brains behind her as well.
She’s a masterful piece of engineering and it makes her so effortless to fly. It’s impossible not to be exhilarated every time. She’s a beast when you want her to be and tame when you need her to be. She’s beautiful.
The launch of the F35s from the HMS Queen Elizabeth is a once in a generation historical event. To be the first to fly off the carrier, to have a front row seat, would be an absolute privilege. It wouldn’t just be about the pilot – there are hundreds of people who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make this happen and the honour will be theirs too.”
There are already 150 UK personnel out in the US working with the state-of-the-art jets, and the latest course of UK pilots have just finished their ground school training and are now ready to fly the F-35B at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.
Amongst those to have graduated from that course are four pilots who started F-35 training straight from their advanced pilot training at RAF Valley, and Wing Commander John Butcher, who will be the Commanding Officer of the RAF’s new 617 squadron.
The new home of 617 squadron, RAF Marham, continues to build towards the arrival of the jets next year, moving a step closer earlier this month when the runway intersection resurfacing was completed. 617 Squadron will be the first operational British F-35 unit.
And elsewhere, the Defence Minister also announced that last week, the first F-35 flight with the latest software was conducted on one of the UK’s F-35Bs at Edwards Air Force Base in California. This software upgrade, technically known as Block 3F, represents the full warfighting capability the UK F-35s will have at Initial Operating Capability in December 2018.
UK industry will provide approximately 15% of the value of each F-35 to be built, more than 3,000, worth some £1 billon and generating around 25,000 British jobs. The programme remains on time, within costs and offers the best capability for our Armed Forces.
At last ! Soon they’ll be operational. Will HMS Prince of Wales also be having the F35C on board eventually?
No. HMS PoW is VTOL as well. It will have the F35B.
Result! Great news.
We got lucky re carrier / harrier gap – but I’ll take the luck.
UK carrier strike will be awesome. QE, F-35, Merlin, T26, T45, Astute, Tide, Wildcat. We don’t have the depth we should but as a strike group it’s as good as any in the world.
Still bothered about lack of missile point defence though – only carrier in world without and they all have great AAW escort support.
I would not go that far Ian but indeed it will be more than most nations have in Carrier group capability.
Who is better and why Daniele?
According to The Times today the UK will procure and have delivered 48 F35B by 2026 ( for the hard at counting that’s 9 years away) at a total cost of around £9bn.
The cost includes infrastructure, upgrades, maintenance and weapons.
The government has declined to commit to further purchases beyond that date, but has an ambition to procure more in the future.
To me the £9bn sounds about right, however I am disappointed that tempo of orders and deliveries is slow.
Aspiration of 4 squadrons and an OCU equipped with F35 look a long way off.
I wonder if there’s a possibility of the carrier flight trials being brought forward? In understand currently this is set for Autumn next year but if the carrier gets IOC in the coming months and everything on the F35 side is ready – might be an opportunity…
The F35 is cleared for ramp takeoff. It has not however completed its flight trials and has much more to go.
Also some info on HMS QE.
“HMS Queen Elizabeth should sail for the second phase of her sea trials in October and will formally commission in December. She will sail for heavy weather trials in the North Atlantic in the first quarter of 2018. During this time she will also focus on rotary-wing certification and trials with embarked Wildcats, Merlin Mk2s, Merlin HC4s, Army Air Corps Apache and RAF Chinook”
“HMS QE will be back alongside for a further planned “defect rectification and capability insertion” period in mid-2018. The main work will be adding equipment to support F-35 operations such as the Instrument Carrier Landing System (ICLS) and set up ALIS – the F-35 aircraft maintenance system. In the later part of 2018 HMS QE will sail with HMS Montrose as her escort to the East Coast of the US. She will embark Royal Marines who will be flown ashore to exercise with the US Marine Corps. Off the Eastern Seaboard of the US, the first F-35Bs will land on HMS QE to begin flying trials. Two specially instrumented “orange-wired” F-35B test aircraft and four pilots will be aboard for 8 weeks of trials and evaluation. Short Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) will be practiced for the first time outside a simulator. This complex manoeuvre will allow the aircraft to return safely to the ship with a weight of unused weapons or fuel. The technique is controversial, many F-35 naysayers expect it to prove unworkable.”
Thanks! Where did you get info?
Thanks for this.
The Royal Navy will soon have the most modern fighting fleet, of first rate ships (some of the very best of their types in the world) that will really make the politicians from a potential adversary state think twice before engaging in a shootout.
Should be a Navy pilot making the first landing not RAF.
Why?
The uk carrier strike will be awesome 2nd only to the US navy in capability. Although China is fast developing a nucleus of carrier capability. The UK has some problems though that need further clarification in the next SDSR
hoe many active F35Bs is the uk going to operate at any time?
ideally more than 90+ so both carriers could be used or one carrier loaded to the hilt and some residual F35Bs for RAF tasking.
The QE carrier does need a point defence missile system and is noted as the only carrier in the world without one.
seems to be penny pinching in the extreme for what is an essential layer of defence for our flagship
Escort and submarine numbers need increasing. Our current fleet is unable to do much more than protect QE and maybe another surface group and that is all.
If we really are growing the RN then lets get the orders in now and get the ships built.
We really need more astute class subs, these are war winners, easily able to defeat any adversary and having just 7 attack subs is inadequate.
concurrent to the Successor class we need a follow on order for another 3-4 astutes.
cant afford this?
then stop sending £13 billion a year abroad in foreign aid!
Agree with aid budget reduction. Politicians of all parties are not interested in defence so I highly doubt your shopping list will be fulfilled save threat if a major war.
Yes, the UK carrier strike capability will be impressive when fully ramped up. Once significant numbers of F35s are available, no country except the US will be able to deploy more capable task groups.
Our ability to help in non-wartime situations should be considerably enhanced, too. Imagine what HMS Queen Elizabeth could do off the coast of Puerto Rico with a dozen Chinooks loaded to supplement the usual strike and force protection aircraft.
Our Achilles heel is an unproven ability to survive an attack by the principal weapon of both of all of our most powerful potential adversaries – swarms of agile, supersonic anti-ship missiles. I’m not sure how we intend to sink enemy warships, either but that’s another conversation.
Heres my thoughts on the F35,ive posted elsewhere so apologies if this sounds familiar-I think we could get more bang for our buck so to speak if we can stretch to getting a mixed fleet of F35’s.Heres my reasoning why,first id equip the 2 proposed FAA squadrons with the F35B as planned.This should enable enough capability for a decent Carrier strike group.Second id equip 617 squadron plus the proposed otherRAF squadron with the F35C rather than the F35A.The reason for this is like the F35A it has more range and payload than the ‘B’ its considerably cheaper,plus you get the benefits of simpler logistics and training using the same ‘base’ Aircraft if you can call it that,If in the future it was decided to convert one or both of the carriers to CATOBAR then hey presto we would already have the correct aircraft in our inventory.We are currently involved in bombing missions against ISIS using Cyprus as a base so its not always going to be the case that we need Carriers for strike missions etc,so I think it would be a win win for our cash strapped forces if we had at least a squadron of the most effective version of the F35 for long range strike.