HMS Richmond, a Plymouth-based Type 23 frigate, has become the first in her class to receive a critical data-sharing upgrade, significantly boosting her role within the UK Carrier Strike Group ahead of its departure to the Indo-Pacific.
According to a Royal Navy press release, Richmond has been equipped with the newly integrated Link 16 Crypto Modernised system. This enhancement improves the ship’s ability to rapidly share tactical information with other Royal Navy and allied units, an essential capability for modern naval warfare where engagements can unfold in seconds.
The upgrade also includes the installation of a Joint Range Extension Application Protocol (JREAP), enabling beyond-line-of-sight data exchange via satellite—a key factor in enabling ships to coordinate threats over vast distances.
“Integration of a modernised Link 16 capability into HMS Richmond is a game-changing enhancement to capability within the UK Carrier Strike Group,” said Commodore James Blackmore, Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, who will lead more than 2,000 personnel on the upcoming eight-month deployment.
The Carrier Strike Group is set to sail next week, and the accelerated delivery of this capability to Richmond reflects the growing importance of real-time data in protecting the fleet from fast-emerging threats, such as the drone and missile attacks the frigate previously faced in the Red Sea.
Captain Dave Downie, Senior Responsible Owner for the Maritime Multi Link (MML) programme, praised the effort that went into delivering the upgrade in time: “This is a brilliant collaborative achievement for everyone involved in the MML enterprise… Each of these organisations have given 100 per cent effort with many regularly going the extra mile to overcome the obstacles thrown up by delivering a complicated, time-consuming and invasive upgrade into a 30-year-old platform.”
Captain Downie added that lessons learned from Richmond’s upgrade will inform the rollout across the remainder of the Type 23 fleet.
I wish we could be more focused on Europe instead of sending a carrier strike group to the indo pacific as its the best use of resources limited ones
So well put. the RN has the wrong priorities full stop. We need to protect the seal lanes to the UK from US and also the North Atlantic and not go glad ragging across the globe.
Sell the carriers to the Aussies and buy more frigates and destroyers. Or at least one of them.
Yes must look after the seals 🦭 as they’re so adorable 😏
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Jonathan has a troll.
oh the irony.
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I think I’ll have to start learning regular commentor’s icons so i don’t get caught out. Regular Jonathan’s is a face with eyes at the top, slightly inset, a pig’s nose and a big square moustache curling around his mouth. Whereas Jim is a robot with horns. I see mine as a top down view of a drag-racer with long rear wheels.
I seem to be a Float Plane !
The real Jonathan would not hold those views.
Few posters have a gravatar, would help ID.
Disagree.
The QEC capability, now we have spent vast sums on it, should be nurtured and supported, not tossed away, considering the RN lost a large part of its escort fleet to help finance it.
That would leave us without Escorts and Carriers.
For sea denial, SSN and Aircraft Carriers and their associated airpower are required.
These deployments to the Far East need only happen occasionally, to demonstrate to the world that the UK has the capability to do so.
Having allies along is a bonus.
The UK has many friends in the world, an asset.
Also it’s good for morale, sailing the hostile North Atlantic constantly probably won’t do much for personnel retention I suspect.
Fly the flag, build relationships via diplomacy and get some training in decent weather is no bad thing really
Hi M8 Happy Easter !
It’s way more than us just flying the flag and engaging with other friendly forces. What most people just don’t understand is that a CSG deployment at this scale and over a significant distance / timescale is the best peacetime way of fully stretching its capabilities. It’s a huge NDT of the entire concept, equipment, logistics, personnel and Command / Control.
To do this takes years of planning and it’s costly but with a full CAG 🤞🏻plus escorts and support all working away from home it’s the nearest thing to a war footing you can get in Peacetime.
Those that say we should stick to Europe and not do this are just plain wrong and just don’t understand that it gives us benefits that you just can’t get any other way.
If we just pootle around in the UK or Med you will never be able to really test it out fully. The RAF would never allow us to deploy 2 Squadrons locally, they have stripped the cupboard bare to do this and that isn’t something they do unless a Big stick is waggled at them. Political interference means the CAG would always be whittled down due to other priorities, that’s just the way it is and why even on exercises they deploy with less than a full squadron.
Doing this allows the Navy to really asses if the lessons learn’t in CSG21 really work and what else is needed for the future. The most obvious of those was the chronic lack of sufficient trained support personnel for the UK F35B, we deployed ours with less than half the number per aircraft as the USMC. The result was lower sortie rates, overwork, stress and sadly it lead to the loss of an Aircraft due to a basic mistake. It’s not generally known but over 20 ground crew were repatriated without replacement during CSG21 due to sickness, stress or other reasons which meant it went from bad to even worse !
If I were a betting man, I think it will work well and as we are working without the USMC (we really owe them a favour) it allows us to liaise with Japan and Australia who are also heading the way of having F35B at sea. I also suspect it may just reinforce the need for us to really accelerate the mini CATOBAR upgrades for a heavy UAV for Refuelling, Tanking, MPA, COD and AEW. And I really do think it’s time we added significant self Defence such as CAMM to the them, the only operator of carriers on earth to not fit SAM is the RN.
On a less serious subject I just really hope they have another TV crew with them, the CSG21 series was brilliant.😉
And a happy Easter to you mate!
“ RN lost a large part of its escort fleet to help finance it.”
There was no guarantee that
NO QEC program = surface force investment.
I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have. As far as Blair/Brown were concerned there was enough surface fleet.
Osborne / Cameron only wanted cuts and would never have ordered anything. They tried to cancel PoW.
Clegg understood we needed more frigates.
I think we would be in the same mess we are now without QECs TBH. That would probably have meant F35 investment being cut too.
Totally correct. Now we have the carriers we should use them. Otherwise we might as we get rid of the RN abd just build a large airbase. We need the RN and it needs to be global in its reach to defend UK interests around the world.
I think the logic that you need 2 in order to assure the availability of one still holds. We have sacrificed the LPDs to retain the carriers and they have utility in the ‘far north’ and off the east coast of Africa as well as AP. Until we get MRSS they, and Argus are the flat tops we would need for a significant littoral intervention. The new frigates are not far off. We need to focus on maintaining the build momentum and get the frigate – destroyer fleet up from 19 -24.
Agree focus should be Atlantic but carriers are vital for that role. The ability to control airspace, have strong Anti sub helo force and anility to strike across the north is vital to defence of northern Norway, especially Svalbard, iceland, Greenland, faroes and even the Shetlands. Northern fleet. It is a capability that will make Putin think twice.
So well thought out you must have thought long and hard.
@Not the real Jonathan.
The Aussies with a population of only 27 million, can not afford the QE Class carriers. They have other priorities.
Besides the issue of the carriers, the UK has economic interests across the globe.
100% agree. Let the US, India, Japan, S Korea and Australia look after the Indo-Pacific. We should concentrate on European and North Atlantic security
I feel like if we are sending our troops and equipment to bail out the Americans we need to start demanding more from them in return.
And I think that if the US is going to provide four fighter squadrons of the most advanced fast jets in the world along with a refueling wing to defend the UK then it should start to demand more from the UK in return.
Oh like following the US into two wars and spending a fortune and hundreds of lives?
Oh yeah we did that.
So fuck off.
Oh like following the US into two wars and spending a fortune and hundreds of lives?
Oh yeah we did that.
So f*ck off.
Fair comment, in my opinion. After we failed to send a carrier into the Red Sea to work alongside the USN due to non-availability of escorts and RFAs a few months ago when the Houthi threat to European shipped commerce peaked, I no longer see the point in our carriers.
We need to focus on protecting our airspace with aircraft, missiles and new systems like Dragofire and this RF drone killer, protecting our trade lanes and underseas communication with a relevant Royal Navy, and think secondarily about expeditionary or peacekeeping activities.
We didn’t fail to send a carrier to the Red Sea, the RN never intended to send one.
Bizarrely they thought sending the best air-defence destroyer afloat would be a better way to defend shipping from airborne threats 🤷🏻♂️
Similarly the RN didn’t fail to send an Astute SSN to defend these tankers from missiles and drones. Because again, that would have been dumb.
Some of the major trade lanes start in the Indo Pacific and transit the Suez. Im not sure what the UK gets from where and what it sells to where but it’s not good to walk away from that and let it defend itself. We’ve got allies, traditional historical relations, the Commonwealth, 5 Power Defence Agreements, economic partners and markets we deal with plus participation in the future TPP Trans Pacific Partnership, though not sure if that’s still a thing. If you don’t turn up, lose interest, others will step in and it’ll be harder to get lost territory and people back. And why not build on all the good work the Spey and Tamar have been doing in the region?
Some of the major trade lanes start in the Indo Pacific and transit the Suez. Im not sure what the UK gets from where and what it sells to where but it’s not good to walk away from that and let it defend itself. We’ve got allies, traditional historical relations, the Commonwealth, 5 Power Defence Agreements, economic partners and markets we deal with plus participation in the future TPP Trans Pacific Partnership, though not sure if that’s still a thing. If you don’t turn up, lose interest, others will step in and it’ll be harder to get lost territory and people back. And why not build on all the good work the Spey and Tamar have been doing in the region?
How many carriers do we need there at any one time?
The UK has economic interests across the globe, we can not re-shore every product. I would like to see your reaction, if you could not longer replace a TV screen/monitor!
Yes, I agree too but I can see the value in this trip as it forges valuable ties and relations with our friends so far away. It’s the soft power that makes the UK stand out and be recognised as an Influential Global power.
We’ll be visiting Australia (our friends in AUKUS) and Japan (our friends in Tempest).
Only idiots like the Trump regime don’t appreciate the usefulness of friends.
👍Exactly💯
The government want to be seen as some kind of world police while giving the RN a worse budget than South Yorkshire police
The UK is an island nation, we depend on the sea for most of our trade across the world. That was certainly true in WW2, Britain was cut off from mainland Europe.
Zoom out, people.
Step back.
We don’t have enough resources.
Defence review, whatever, all three Services need enormous investment to expand and meet threats, forge relationships and secure our lands.
There has to be an economic case for defence investment that adds to UK coffers and delivers capability; that means a 32ish DD/FF navy, a rotational deployed Division and an RAF capable to meet the threat dimension.
Go fund me that, with a financial return.
Hint, nationalise a steel factory to roll out steel for an increased production of warships for both domestic and export.
UK government: “We want a military presence across the globe.”
Also UK government: “Eat these budget cuts plebs”
Some moronic comments here today.
👍Exactly!
We have carriers like it or not let’s use them let them work up to full readiness. It’s not about being an empire again get over it. Let others know we have them and they can be deployed it’s called a deterrent.
For the life of me I cannot understand why we have had both Carriers in service for the last few years, that decision has just made the RN manning issues worse and that has resulted in the Bulwark / Argyle fiascos.
The fact is we just don’t have the crews, Aircraft, Helicopters, RFA etc etc to keep both going at the same time. To get POW up to what is effectively full strength we have had to strip the RAF of operational F35B and their support ground crew. Anyone watching them get POW ready to deploy must have scratched their heads when they swapped an Anchor over with QE, talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul.
I have to believe there has to be an underlying tangible reason for keeping them both but other than something like the IEP having to be kept fully maintained to avoid restart issues after a lay up I’m stumped 🤷🏼♂️
I think the ‘Honeymoon’ period of having both Carriers available at the same time is coming to an end, purely because being new their Maintenance / Refit schedules have not had reason to divulge. With QE now going into a Refit period and POW about to deploy, going forward only 1 will be available at any given time.
Are we moderating comments to avoid spam bots?
For now, I’m trying to figure out a way of doing it
Fair enough, horrible additional workload for you though.
I’m trying to figure out a way to do this technically, and that also restories email replies. The old plugin knocked the site offline a few times as it was checking every comment on every article, not idea