HMS Queen Elizabeth will soon set sail on a month-long training cruise.

The aircraft carrier is heading to Glenmallan in Scotland, where it will restock its ammunition supply.

During the cruise, the crew will have the opportunity to work with highly advanced F-35 fighter jets, an experience that will further enhance their skills and knowledge.

Glenmallan

This will be the second time the vessel has visited the Northern Ammunition Jetty at Glen Mallan near Faslane since it was upgraded.

According to a news release on the upgrade work:

“We awarded a Ā£67m contract to VolkerStevin in 2019. Alongside them, we worked with managing agent Jacobs, which provided engineering and professional services, as well as designer Arch Henderson. In completing this major project, Ā£20m was spent with local suppliers and small and medium enterprises in Scotland. The jetty was last upgraded in the 1970s and had reached the end of its economic life. The upgrade work has not only extended the life of the jetty by an estimated fifty years, but has also made the site accessible for theĀ Royal Navyā€™s aircraft carriers,Ā HMS Queen ElizabethĀ andĀ HMS Prince of Wales.

In fact, HMS Queen Elizabeth visited part way through the work, back in March 2021, in preparation for her first operational deployment. This was not originally planned but became necessary when the scale of the shipā€™s deployment increased, presenting the team with a challenge to make the jetty operational in time for her arrival. Everyone involved, from DIO, VolkerStevin, Jacobs and the various subcontractors worked closely together to enable HMS Queen Elizabeth to berth at the unfinished jetty, which she did successfully.”

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
Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

47 COMMENTS

  1. Pardon my ignorance but I hope Glen Mallan is not the “only” ammunition loading point available for the carriers and other RN ships?! Surely there’s another one and same for fuelling too?

    • They can Replenish at Sea RAS Stores and Liquid but there are several fuelling jetties available around the UK , plenty of deep water commercial ports with bunker facilities and also the likes of DM Beith available. Smaller ships use The Dolphins in Pompey or Ernesettle to re/de ammunition.
      I watched the Iowa offloading in Long Beach – 4 days while a frigate takes 1!

      • No ships use the jetty at Ernesettle for ammunitioning, it’s all done on the river moorings with lighters brought down from there.

      • I don’t take supply chains for granted having worked in them for 25 years. The diversity, protection and resilience of all end to end supply chains for fuel, equipment stocks, ammunitions, personnel, are all important for the front line to fully function in peace time and wartime. You’d know that from your time in the Navy.
        Yes Russia would be stupid to attack NATO, but who knows what might come next and quickly. Their subs, Kaliningrad, ICBMs, all and around the UK and Europe’s neighbourhood so to speak. I know we have ours but just look at the human misery, destruction and mess in Ukraine closeby. Do you ever want that on your doorstep? I’d rather be more over prepared, over armed, than under for both detterence and use.

        • These sites are very well protected, and the locations chosen for very good tactical reasons. Our Force’s have very broad supply chains, both at home and abroad. Every site would be vulnerable during an all-out WW3 scenario, but if that was the case, the carrier’s wouldn’t be sat in Scotland, and most of the weapons would be on-board our warships. Russian ammunition storage facilities would be just as vulnerable as ours. We can’t counter every single variable threat. But a conflict of unimaginable destruction would have to take place for us to worry about facilities like these being taken out. Contingencies and all out war footing would be well in place before we got to any of that. Conflicts like that don’t just happen overnight. And you can’t compare what has happened to Ukraine to a full out invasion of the UK mainland. Which is what would need to happen before sites like Glenmallan would be under threat. šŸ‘

          • Thanks for your reply Robert, I will have to trust your detail on this from your experience. Ond example, there’s a very obvious absence of GBAD across the UK, which if not on the majoy key sites, ports, airports, radar installations, etc, is unlikely to be on the lesser sites. Some one has deemed it not necessary or is the UK just pushing it’s luck a bit too far? Seriously hope there’s some demonstrated contingency and or rectification in this area alone and sooner than later.

          • I don’t know is my honest answer. Maybe the threat evaluations have concluded over the years that Russia simply doesn’t have the capability to carry out a conventional attack on the UK mainland short of Nuclear destruction. And there performance in Ukraine would probably back up that evaluation. The days of expecting hordes of Russian Bears and Backfires heading over the North Sea unchallenged is not a realistic scenario today.

    • Have a look at the following Navy Lookout articles from 2018:

      Arming the fleet ā€“ the network that supplies munitions to the Royal Navy
      Fuelling the fleet ā€“ the network that supplies oil to the Royal Navy

    • There is DM Crombie on Firth of Forth but thatā€™s unsuitable for large ships. The raison dā€™etre for the Glen Mallan jetty is the adjacent DM Glen Douglas.

      • There are loads of NATO bases that can fuel a QEC.

        French
        Spanish

        Can jib?

        Anywhere that can fuel a large oil tanker would be able to do the job.

        Jet fuel can be RASā€™d or pumped in from trucks if you really had to.

        Water can be jury rigged with a load of blue potable water pipe from any compliant mains supply.

        Storing is relatively easy for perishables.

        It is more for the larger things that go bang that canā€™t be pallet handles aboard. 20 & 30mm can be pallet trucked aboard. The issue is more cranage and space to load bombs and missiles in very large quantities for the F35Bā€™s.

        • Why on earth was it not fitted with a nuclear engine system like nimitz class carriers are vulnerable when refuelling at sea! And as for the propeller shafts thats an expensive joke

          • Because we could only afford one of those and not two.

            The propeller shafts thing is bizarre, I will grant you.

            Did happen before with HMS Invincible although that wasnā€™t the shafts it was more the internal alligments of the whole plant were wrong.

  2. Anywhere in the UK that handles /loads explosives has an explosive licence for the jetty. Devonport, Pompey, Faslane have licences for conducting small quantity top ups of 1.4 type ammoand pyros in the dockyards. Specific rules are in force to minimise any risk. So the quantities are small and can only be stowed on the upper deck in specific lockers. You dont work main mags alongside in Harbour. That is a big no, no.

    For big load outs you need an approved berth or morring that meets the stringent and comprehensive safety requirements for the amount of Bang being moved around. Usually that means its in a relatively isolated position for safety distances. The NEQ, Net Explosive Quantity of explosives On the jetty/mooring on the ships deck and being moved about is all added up and the final quantity cannot exceed the explosive licence.

    There is a UN Explosive Danger area calculator HERE
    Punch in the explosive quantities and it gives you the safe distances for civvies and buildings to avoid injury/damage if it all goes pete tong.

    The now out of date but still available DSA03 Document is available HERE

    Its a fun read if you where once an WOME practitioner (Me!) and still need to do the odd explosive safety calculations for work as I sometimes do. It covers everything you will ever need to know about bulk ammo handling, safety , licencing and Risk Management

    Enjoy!
    And remember …
    Explosives are safe until you forget that they are dangerous!

  3. Very concerning if true.

    Ammunition running out but ‘no new money’ for defence despite war in Ukraine, sources say
    “The Treasury has signalled there is no new money for defence despite recognising the urgent need to rearm in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, defence sources have said.

    Defence sources warn Britain will be unable “credibly” to offer as many troops as NATO allies would expect to a major new force structure being drawn up by the alliance to bolster its defences.”

    • Thereā€™s already been Ā£7billion taken from treasury reserves to cover items sent to Ukraine. I think.
      The general budget is tricky. If u take off 20% for nuclear stuff, then what the uk has kind of matches up to what other countries with that size budget have.

    • If true, then the government is criminally negligent wrt the defence of the country. Like it or not this is a war on European soil, with one side being our greatest threat. They can’t be allowed to bury their heads in the sand!

      Rishi and his crowd should be conducting themselves like a government under war time conditions until this is sorted, if and granted it’s a big if, this escalates, we won’t be contributing a great deal of anything to NATO. How ridiculous does that make us look? Despite having one of the largest defence budgets in NATO!!!!

      • I could not agree more. We are as you quite rightly say on a war footing by proxy and should be in a better position to contribute to NATO and have the ability to deter any form of Russian aggression directed at us without the requirement of other countries to help.

        By that, I mean a decent land-based layered missile defence system to protect the UK from attacks from air and sea threats including a modern long-range surveillance radar capability to cover the entire UK.

        • I personally think that we should of had an emergency Defence Review last year and now be in a position with sufficient funds allocated to start implementing any changes identified by the Review.

          That might well mean back tracking or changing direction on certain projects, but so be it.

          Have heard that the army are playing the blame (RN & RAF) game for some of their woes! If that’s true, then some of those head sheds need a swift P45. There dilemma is mostly down to their own incompetence not the RN or RAF getting on with things.

          • Iā€™m come to the conclusion that the people in charge think because money gets spent on defence it means there is a force that can do anything expected of it. From covering strikes to holding all counties of the world in fear of the mighty British forces.
            If defence doesnā€™t increase in these times it never will.

          • ” If defence doesnā€™t increase in these times it never will.”

            And that’s what concerns me most Mr Spanker.

        • Playing devil’s advocate- it could be argued that Putin’s war on Ukraine has revealed the less than impressive real capability of Russian armed forces and further greatly weakened them. In conventional warfare the danger is diminished rather than increased. UK needs to be able to counter any nuclear threat so the CASD with increased warhead numbers is vital( if expensive). We also need to make sure we can deal with any sub sea threat so ASW should be an RN priority.
          There is no reason for UK to be overly concerned about our contribution to a land force in Europe. A large UK force was necessary when Russian tanks in East Germany were a few miles from Hamburg. But the Iron Curtain has moved hundreds of miles east. The combined population of Germany and Poland is almost as big as Russia’s and combined GDP vastly greater. They should be able to handle Russian forces by themselves.
          Of course, the British Army needs to be modernized and several major programmes to re equip it are under way. But other than replacing the weapons and equipment given to Ukraine, it is hard to argue convincingly that a further major uplift to the defence budget is needed.
          See how easy it will be for the Treasury to resist demands for more!

      • Unfortunately the government has been ‘criminally negligent’ for quite some time now on all manner of things.

        Other than Naval capability, the UK is fit for nothing more than fighting proxy wars in todays world.

        No longer a tier 1 or 2 army any more. It’s embarrassing now.

      • Rishi ‘the accountant’ Sunak…or ‘Numbers’ to afford him his Mafia monika.
        He knows the price of beans I reckon that’s about it…PM material my arse, if it wasn’t so serious it would be laughable.

  5. Going off on a wee tangent… seems the Prince Of Wales is still in trouble regarding prop shafts and whatever else. Either that, or we are being fed a load of old ‘pony’ as to its readiness, as no doubt the bean counters will be rubbing there hands with glee, as it is not incurring costs by being at sea.

    • Nope its gone into the ether…My bit was actually about the subject topic covering explosive licencing and ammo handling at jetties and ports.

      • Deletion en masse? Did we upset somebody? Why canā€™t the ukdj reinstate it? It must still be somewhere in their e-bin?

        • Mines now approved…George obviously had other stuff on his plate like convincing people that the proof below is correct when dealing with shipbuilding algebra

          (8T26)+(5T31)=13

          • Love the algebra GB! That should give us the ā€œforemost naval fleet in Europeā€ of 6T45+8T26+5T31+5T32=24 that Boris talked about. And we could go higher still.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here