Air Vice-Marshal Suraya Marshall, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, recently visited HMS Prince of Wales during its participation in Exercise Strike Warrior, held off the coast of the United Kingdom.
Arriving by Royal Navy Mk4 Merlin helicopter, Air Vice-Marshal Marshall witnessed the launch of an F-35B Lightning and toured key areas of the carrier, according to a news release here.
Exercise Strike Warrior is a pivotal test of the Carrier Strike Group’s readiness and effectiveness in various complex combat scenarios. F-35B Lightnings from 617 Squadron, alongside 809 Naval Air Squadron, played a central role in the exercise, supporting the Royal Navy’s maritime operations.
In addition, Typhoon aircraft from IX(B) and 1(F) Squadrons at RAF Lossiemouth contributed to the operations.
Typhoon and F-35B Lightning aircraft together form the backbone of the UK’s Combat Air capabilities, offering a complementary and powerful force mix. This combination is vital for ensuring operational persistence, a wide range of sensors, and an array of weapons, which are essential in addressing advancing threats.
The F-35B’s 5th generation swing-role capabilities allow it to perform multiple mission types at once, equipped with stealth technology that provides a significant tactical advantage by evading hostile radar detection.
F-35B Lightnings are held at high readiness, capable of deploying in support of UK and NATO operations worldwide from both land and sea, further demonstrating the UK’s commitment to maintaining global security.
Key areas, hmm?
I wonder why this sort of thing isn’t routine? Line the island with brass every exercise?
Air Vice Marshal Marshall. She’s so good they named her twice!
Her Husband is Air Marshal Marshall !!!!!!!!!!!!! A decent bloke
At one point, the RAF’s combat air fleet was theoretically capable of being commanded from a breakfast table in Lincolnshire… ‘Could I borrow a couple of your Voyagers today, please? Oh… we seem to need more milk’ sort of thing. (for the uninitiated there was a short period where Al was AOC1 Gp and Suraya AOC 2 Gp before the group was put in charge of infrastructure and combat air all placed in 1 Gp).
I once knew a Major Major….and a Captain Scarlett!
I knew Captain Bligh, he flew F104s in their ground attack role for Canada in NATO. He said it was “a little hairy” at times.
Ex Tornado F3 Navigator.
Fair play to her.
“If you want something done, give to a busy woman” just about covers it…
The idea that the RAF know about air/sea warfare is no I don’t believe they do.
Very drole. We used to find the Russian submarine first and hand it over to the Royal Navy
I hope 617 Sqn know something about it!
Do you disapprove of a female AVM?
If the war starts i don’t think much of leadership would be capable, M or F. Peacetime calls for political acumen and just the minimal competency for things to not fall a part.
Is it political leaders or uniformed leaders that you doubt? Why?
Hiya Daniele, I don’t approve of DEI – ESG hires in chaos, death and destruction jobs, surely the military has enough manipulative maniacs in its upper echelons without an over educated bomb aimer appointee, also lady hawks have an appalling record, Victoria Nuland being the latest disaster but there are many, many others, Albright, Warren, Pelosi, Condolezza, Kamala and even Liz Truss have all contributed in my lifetime to mayhem around the Earth.
Woman being the giver of life should, in my humble opinion, seek love, happiness and joy for all through health, empathy and compassion and leave the destruction of civilization/humanity to those who don’t know what they’re doing.
Morning.
“manipulative maniacs” 😂
Well I’m not a fan of the more “woke” aspects of diversity either.
But I don’t have any issues regards women in the military so long as they can do the job.
And having read up on this lady, she was an F3 navigator herself so to me she’s earned the right to rise through the ranks to her position.
Morning Daniele, I did a mini search on Mrs Marshall myself, she’s Married to a RAF general which defo helped her up the ladder. There arn’t enough planes in the RAF for her to do much damage although her rank does qualify her to make strategic decisions, I would point out that opinions lay between knowledge and ignorance and mine are more than likely, hopefully, tending toward the latter. ❤️✌️
😁
Good luck with finding a General in the RAF 👀.
Very nerdy of you Paul, AVM, Generaloberst der luftwaffe, tallyho, whatever 😉
As someone ancient enough to have worked with both Al and Suraya where I was at differing times their Directing Staff, you, Sir, are way off target. Suraya was, at one point, senior to Al and commanded 55 Sqn before Al got 5 Sqn. If anyone benefitted from the spouse being senior using your timeline & logic – and he didn’t – it was Al, not Suraya…
She’s a *very* capable operator (just like her husband).No ACAS, male, female, non-binary or whatever could ‘do much damage’ to the RAF, and 2 Gp seemed to do just fine when she was the AOC, even if her efforts to save the Herc were defeated by the Treasury and male RAF officers and there were some tricky problems some felt she could’ve handled better (an observation which could be made of Trenchard, Harris, Tedder, Slessor, Elworthy, Dalton and Wigston).
By all accounts she was a damn good nav. Just like the former female OCs of 12 and II(AC), she got where she’s got to because of talent; there are a fair few male senior officers who I’ve known who are/were of lower calibre than Suraya, and even then I’d describe them as being pretty decent at their job. The idea that she’s some sort of diversity hire is even more wrong than it is insulting.
Hiya S P, I stand corrected 👍 I hope you can forgive my boorishness but in this world of wokish fatalism I don’t trust anything I hear and only half of what I see, after “follow the science” “no-one is safe till everyone is safe” and my favourite “hands, space, face” I can only surmise that our leaders and elites are hell bent on killing most of us off, plague, famine, war etc.
Politics has sadly become the continuation of warfare by any means so it doesn’t matter much who f¥€£$ up first man, woman or dontknow.
The rise and fall of civilizations is rooted in the rise and fall of moral values.
You do know ‘semper paratus’ is the motto of the US coastguard.
❤️☮️
Yeah you can fuck right off with that sexist attitude. Women have every right to serve, and just because they do well and get into high appointments doesn’t make them DEI appointments.
They’ll be wantin’ to play football, box and drive F1 cars next then der welt will really go to schiesse and while free speech is still allowed suck dick bitch.
Some stupid DEI €¥nt in the NZ navy just sank a f¥€£in’ ship in, literally, the middle of the ocean.
I’m sorry for my alpha attitude, but you started it. 😎❤️☮️