HMS Queen Elizabeth has taken delivery of live munitions whilst at sea for the first time.

The carrier tweeted that the munitions were loaded on from RFA Fort Victoria, along with food and aviation fuel, “keeping our sailors and jets going at sea”.

Fort Victoria is an Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment ship, offering the capability of both stores ship and fleet tanker.

What is the UK Carrier Strike Group doing?

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the deployed flag ship for Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21), a deployment that will see the ship and her escorts sail to the Asia-Pacific and back.

The Carrier Strike Group includes ships from the United States Navy, the Dutch Navy, and Marines from the US Marine Corps as well as air assets from 617 Sqn, 820 NAS, 815 NAS and 845 NAS.

Not shown is an Astute class submarine.

The Royal Navy say that the UK’s Carrier Strike Group will visit more than one fifth of the world’s nations. Led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, the task group will visit 40 nations including India, Japan, Republic of Korea and Singapore in a deployment covering 26,000 nautical miles.

“While in the Pacific, ships from the Carrier Strike Group will mark the 50th anniversary of the Five Powers Defence Agreement between Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the UK by taking part in Exercise Bersama Lima. Joining HMS Queen Elizabeth on her maiden deployment are destroyers HMS Diamond and Defender; frigates HMS Richmond and Kent; an Astute-class submarine in support below the waves; and Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ships RFA Fort Victoria and RFA Tidespring.

More than 30 aircraft will also embark across the task group including F-35 jets from 617 Squadron, the Dambusters, and the US Marine Corps’ VMFA-211; Wildcat helicopters from 815 Naval Air Squadron and Merlin helicopters from 820 and 845 Naval Air Squadrons. Royal Marines from 42 Commando will also deploy with the carrier. Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen and American Arleigh Burke destroyer USS The Sullivans are also part of the strike group.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth at sea with a mix of British and American jets.

Currently however, HMS Diamond isn’t with the group after suffering a defect. You can read more about that here. HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group will also undertake anti-submarine exercises whilst in the Pacific region.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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38 COMMENTS

  1. So at the end of a deployment, do all those munitions get offloaded? Phalanx emptied, stored emptied etc? Or is it kept on board for a quick departure? Cheers
    M@

    • I would assume that as the duty Carrier, shes kept “loaded for Bear” when she’s back alongside in Portsmouth Matt.

    • Aircraft Carriers are only ‘de-ammunitioned’ ahead of major refit periods. To do that they need to sail up to Glen Mallan and de-ammunition directly to the storage facility there.

      At present its highly likely that HMS Prince Of Wales has nothing more than small amounts of self defence ammunition onboard as she has yet to go to Glen Mallan for a big load.

  2. Why not say 14 tons? You wouldn’t measure the length of the ship in centimeters, so why measure the weight of the munitions in kilograms?

  3. This is very interesting. Last time I armed ship was in Gib before we publicly declared we were heading south in 82. This is a bit ominous…

  4. #George, Do we need articles padded out everytime with what the CSG is doing? same text same graphics & pics on every artical releating to CSG21? surely everyone knows by now? just t passing thought..

    •  😀  But if you come to it new it has all the background info. Just skip if not interested but it is all part of the dark arts of making a website be bigger and viable and minimum info becomes max article. If BBC + papers etc can do it why not UK journal. If you look at a lot of articles online they always have rehashed information.

  5. Thought the BBC would of reported more on CSG ,but in reality since sailing round in the South China sea been a little on the quiet side 😶

  7. I was going to say why the reload as the haven’t used anything. Are we thinking 14 tons of real ammunition has been dropped by aircraft etc, thought the would use cheap concrete practice bombs.

    • The fighter jets were off on bombing missions of isis strongholds.. no training exercise. They gone out there to do a job.

      • How could I forget that! So much going on in the world. If the needed them I guess they would off topped up earlier after Syria. Maybe just for the fun of it if could be grabbed some from Guam or something. Maybe sonar buoys and things like that are counted as ammo. 20mm cannon etc

  8. A capability many don’t know exist, the RFA, but a small force which ensures we are and will remain a blue sea navy capable of deploying and operating at length anywhere around the globe. Well done to all involved!

  9. The ammunition and armament load of a ship is set out in an MOD confidential document that was known as the Armament Warrant. It lists all of the Armament stores a vessel must carry as a minimum war stock. Its not just explosives, it also includes all items who’s NATO Stock number is prefixed with an A. This can be arming wires, rifles, spare parts for cannons, grease for guns….the list is comprehensive.

    As you expend stuff, if it approaches LIFEX, or it gets red flagged as “Do not Use, set aside ” for safety or performance issues, you start to approach your minimum war stock number so you end up replenishing items .

    As stated below you only de-ammo for a refit or major maintenance work in and around a magazine…Welding and burning in a magazine full of explosives is for obvious reasons a big big No, No!

  10. Hi George, my message is a bit random, I know, but just thought I’d say thanks to you and all the UKDJ crew who help support and contribute to this website. It’s a daily staple for me for most things UK military related.

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