HMS Prince of Wales has put to sea for pre-deployment training ahead of a British Carrier Strike Group deployment to the Pacific later this year.

The warship, after departing Portsmouth this morning, will be at sea for a number of weeks conducting training ahead of Carrier Strike Group 25.

Onboard the vessel one word dominates the mood: excited.

For the crew of the Royal Navy’s flagship, this mission marks the culmination of years of preparation, hard work, and perseverance. Speaking aboard the ship, Captain Will Blackett spoke to me on the sense of accomplishment that has brought them to this moment. “Excited” he said when asked to summarise the mood among the crew.

For Captain Blackett and his team, this deployment isn’t just another task; it represents the result of rigorous trials and intense training.

“It’s the first time this ship has held the duty of flagship,” Captain Blackett explained. “Over the course of four years, we’ve overcome quite a lot of challenges.” Among these was a major repair to the ship’s propeller system, a period that Captain Blackett acknowledged was critical in shaping the ship’s readiness.

Since then, the crew has put HMS Prince of Wales through its paces, both materially and operationally, ensuring that both the vessel and its sailors are prepared for the challenges ahead. “We’re ready to go,” said Captain Blackett. “The ship works, the team know what they’re going to do, and we’re on standby now waiting for instructions.”

The upcoming Carrier Strike Group 2025 operation will see HMS Prince of Wales take her task force east of the Suez Canal on a global mission. Britain’s two Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth, regularly rotate the flagship title between them, with one ready for deployment and the other in routine maintenance.

This is the first time in her five-year career that HMS Prince of Wales has assumed the prestigious role.

Reflecting on the significance of the moment, Captain Blackett remarked, “This is a proud moment for HMS Prince of Wales. We’ve been training hard, ably assisted by our sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth. We’re ready, we’re excited, and look forward to taking the next step in the ship’s life.”

The transfer of the flagship role does not involve a formal ceremony, but the two carriers briefly met in UK waters before HMS Prince of Wales made her way to Liverpool for her official designation. HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Commanding Officer, Captain Will King, offered his support for the new flagship.

“Every Sailor in HMS Queen Elizabeth knows the pride that comes from serving in the RN Flagship. I wish HMS Prince of Wales every success taking on the title – they will do a fantastic job. As her sister-ship, we stand ready to support her in every way.”

Carrier heading to Japan to aid stability in the Pacific

As part of her preparations, HMS Prince of Wales participated in Exercise Strike Warrior, a major North Sea operation involving allied nations. The exercise included her first embarkation of F-35B Lightning jets from 809 Naval Air Squadron, which conducted 71 sorties over 210 flying hours and dropped live Paveway bombs during operational scenarios.

As HMS Prince of Wales sets her sights on the Pacific, the excitement on board is palpable.

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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40 COMMENTS

  1. I wonder what the Pacific deployment will look like now we have a new works order…Japan yes, Australia yes, but I bet it will be less intrusive on china than it could have been.

    • CSG25 is due to participate in a Five Powers exercise, so a Singapore port visit seems a cert. After being left out in 2021, I expect that Duqm Port in Oman will also get a visit by POW. Otherwise they may as well close the UK Joint Logistics Support Base (UKJLSB) there – I can’t see what it is being used for after plans to forward base a LRG(S) there were canned, and there’s been no hints of an Exercise Saif Sareea 4.

      • RFA Argus is supposed to be setting sail with the CSG but I’m not sure but it’s quite possible she is going to stop off and continue to be LSG south operating from Oman?

    • Hi Mate
      The Chinese navy has ships conducting live firing drill in the Tasman sea at present. Air traffic between Aus and NZ being diverted. It’s a worry.

      • Hi Klonkie, how are you going. I think it’s time for NZ to put some NSM on its two frigates and get some JSM for it’s P8s and maybe get 1-2 A140/T31 ordered and brought forward and can be built in Indonesia, almost next door! They’re building two stretched A140s for themselves so must be getting the building knowhow by now.
        With the Chinese visit, i can’t believe seemingly casualness to NE surveillance by the armed forces here in Aus in this instance anyway. Not sure if they sent any naval ships sent out but must have had P8s, drones, satellites. Looks like the Chinese ships trying to suss out a new way into the Indian Ocean and onto Africa by passing more northern route. Aus needs more subs asap, even diesel for coastal patrols, as an interim before the Virginia’s turn up if they ever do! A couple of subs for NZ anyone? The Philippines and Indonesia have ordered the French Scopene i believe, the one Aus rejected the nuclear version of…LOL. They could have just stuck to a few more diesel to compliment the Collins class.

      • Doubt he’ll give a foxtrot, to be honest, Sir.

        We have to move with the times and that means recognising our Allies in the Region and I’m not sure that includes America; work with them yes, work for them as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan? Never again.

        • Not never again, that’s just a stupid thing to say . America will get over this latest embarrassment of a leader and understand their true place.
          Donald Musk is just a passing phase, It’s not what America wants or needs now. Time will tell how much damage these two will cause but America will wake up soon.

  2. I read last night that part of the reason for POW departing Portsmouth today was to avoid the strike that include tug boat crews that are coming into force shortly. Obviously she was due to depart at some point soon anyway

        • Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service mate, not THE RMAS! 😄
          Back in the day their support craft at the varied HMNBs were distinctive with their black and mustard colour scheme.
          Serco Denholm took it cover, the varied tugs and boats now have the SD Prefix, see SD Victoria for example.
          Based at Portsmouth, Devonport, Faslane, Greenock, and I think a handful at Gib.

  3. >As HMS Prince of Wales sets her sights on the Pacific, the excitement on board is palpable.

    For their sake, I hope that CSG25 is not cancelled. The problem being that sending all the UK’s operational F-35B’s halfway round the world may look very foolish if they are suddenly needed to provide air support to 3(UK) Division in Ukraine.

    • They can fly back, you know. Just have to leave a few to guard the carrier. Although it’s another good reason not to put UK troops into Ukraine as peacekeepers or observers.

    • RB, Haven’t we still got a few Typhoons who can do that?
      Also, would we send our entire warfighting division to Ukraine in a peacekeeping role?
      Given that it would be an enduring operation, I suspect we will send a brigade or less.

      • A brigade is neither fish nor fowl: too few to deter, too many for just observation. I hope we send no more than 20 observers who can check the temperature up and down the front (give them two or three transport helicopters to get to various places where they can meet and greet for two or three days at a time), and do the rest with aerial assets: Reapers and Watchkeepers for the main, a couple of F-35s and a Rivet Joint for the rest, unless we can also get a dedicated LEO cluster, which would be nice. I hope we are in time to reprieve the Watchkeepers. The biggest issue with Watchkeepers and Reapers is they are likely to get shot down in wartime, but this will be nominally peacetime and we just don’t care all that much if they do get shot down. Watchkeeper is for the chop anyway and the Reapers are being replaced by Protector.

  4. How many F35 B on board..I hope about 30 😆 lol..plus Merlin helicopters..and drone..etc…that would be a powerful strike group??!!!

    • If they embarked on POW every qualified pilot and available flyable airframe at Marham then 24 F-35B’s is theoretically possible, but 18 is my guesstimate. POW will embark c.6 Merlin’s HM2’s, probably two in the Crowsnest ASaC config. The silence about Crowsnest is deafening, it’s obviously a turkey (penny wise, pound foolish …) and the preference and priority is configure most of the small fleet of Merlin MH2’s as ASW platforms. Given no Fort Victoria in the group, POW will probably embark a couple of Merlin Mk4’s for COD/VERTREP. A small utility helicopter would make a lot of sense, but it’s not clear if anything is available. Finally a flight from 700X NAS will surely embark with a few UAVs / RPAS.

          • The original promise was 24 in ’24. this was pushed to 24 in ’25. I think they’ll be too tired to exercise when the ship gets home, and too unprepared before it leaves. That means the best hope would be an exercise in the Med on the way back. Perhaps with the Italians. Like ExRoyal says, it’ll have a hit on training, possibly also on Ukraine, but I think it will be worth it for more than just signalling. There’s what we will learn from having a fuller deck, what we’ll learn about our preparedness and finally there’s something to be said for hitting a target we set ourselves rather than never quite getting there.

          • Jon, it’s 2025 now…. so we should really expect to see the 24 that were promised in 2024 and prior to that date ?

      • Given that serviceability of the 35 is poor, 18 would seem possible. Anymore would affect ongoing training back in the UK. It may well be they go for 24 to telegraph a message. Taking the hit on training.

      • There was talk that the USMC would be joining the CSG as before, not sure where that stands due to the present political climate. I also believe that either Holland or Norway are providing a ship for solid stores replenishment to support the CSG. There was also talk that either or both Holland/France would also provide a frigate for the CSG.

  5. Does anyone know if we still have three F-35Bs in the US doing trials and evaluation? Someone said they were back in the UK. Also how many aircraft in the OCU and in war reserve?

    • I can’t see why those three would be in the UK, they still have a lot of work to do and we are a long way off having even anywhere near the quantity so far ordered, let alone originally envisaged.
      Think along the lines of 30 in the OCU at the moment, It’s really rather woeful given the 9 years these Carriers have been out there .
      Only a fool would believe that this situation is acceptable. I personally can see no good reason to order two 70,000 ton Carriers with the capacity to embark 38-42 F35 b’s each with absolutely no chance to ever do so in their envisaged 50 year lives. And that’s just in RN service, We also lost 100’s of Tornado’s and cut the Typhoon numbers too.

      I seriously hope that Starmer and Healy can get a grip on all this and sooner rather than later.

      • The RN used their carriers differently from
        the USN, with the addition of an anti- submarine warfare element in their doctrine. Unlike USN carrier doctrine of pure power projection of air supremacy.
        Steadfast Defender 2024 was an example of mixed roles of warfare.

  6. It is crazy that after over 5 years in service, PoW (cost £3bn, crew 800+) is only now getting close to being deployed (in the USN sense, not 2-3 week training exercises) for the first time. If you go back to the CVF Key User Requirements of 2002, KUR3 required “The carriers have an availability which is very similar to that of cruise ships – of about 300 days per year.” An annual 6 or 7 month deployment by one of the carriers was expected to be the norm, not an exception that can only be achieved every four years. There was even briefly talk when Boris was PM about forward deploying one of the carriers to Singapore as part of the now largely defunct Indo-Pacific pivot by the UK. I can only hope that some of the MOD’s budget increase will be devoted to sorting out carrier strike, otherwise I fear that the carriers really are white elephants that have robbed other parts of the RN from vital funding and manpower.

    • Being ex-RN, I am sorry to say that I’m coming around to that conclusion. The whole concept of a carrier strike force, which needs dedicated escorts and F35s, is an expensive luxury in the current situation.

      If we think that current events are so serious that they warrant a big and immediate uplift in spend, then we be equally serious about where we allocated those resources. Sunk cost fallacy or service pride are not good enough reasons to stick to the status quo.

      Given the current situation (limited budget, MAGA America aligning with Russia), I think the RN should instead concentrate on local theatres e.g. home waters/North Atlantic/Arctic/Baltic and responding to key threats e.g. CASD/ASW.

      Sheer bloody inertia makes it very unlikely but I think this is something worth considering.

      In the very unlikely eventuality that we mothball or sell the carriers, this could potentially mean that:
      1. we ease RN manpower constraints;
      2. we free up budget as we would no longer need to purchase a significant number of new F35s (this money could be used to purchase new Typhoons and ease the transition to Tempest);
      2. the RAF could take sole control of the current fleet of F35s, thereby boosting the number of available hulls in the short term (in case of a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine);
      3. we re-focus our ship building on assets that contribute to ASW (adding a bow sonar to T31s and funding more T26s – with CAMM ERs? – as we wouldn’t need a follow-on dedicated AAW hull);
      4. we could onshore an upgraded version of Sea Viper to provide an ‘iron dome’ for the UK (Type 45s would then have to revert to being large GP units which would be less than ideal in the short term).

      The biggest issue – that of a lack of a sufficient number of submarines and frigates – might be eased a little by this approach but unfortunately the fundamental problem would remain: we just need to build a lot more asap.

      Anyway, my 2ps worth. Cheers.

      • In the very unlikely eventuality that we mothball or sell the carriers, this could potentially mean that:
        1. we will reduce RN manpower even further;
        2. we free up budget, which could go to more nuclear warheads, paying Mauritius to take something it already wants, Crossrail 2, NHS, subsidising feminist poetry or even something you don’t want it spent on, because you and I won’t get to decide where it goes, (well it never seems to go where I want).
        3. We can just decommission the Type 45s immediately without replacement, as without a strike group we can get away with less than top rate destroyers and as you say they will be useless without Sea Viper anyway.
        4. The RAF could take sole control of the current fleet of F35s, thereby ensuring that all fixed-wing naval aviation is permanently lost to the UK; the Army could get all the Wildcats, even though it still won’t want them.

        So other than ASW frigates, which we can’t build fast enough to replace the aging T23s much less enough to increase capability, and some OPVs, would we even have a surface fleet? All cuts now then more ASW frigates in ten years time when we have capacity to build them but will probably have lost another 5,000 demoralised sailors? Why are you proposing the destruction of the Royal Navy?

  9. Operation High Mast (aka CSG25) will now commence in April. A bit later than the end-Feb date I had previously heard. Of course it may still change given world events, there are strong arguments that now is bad time for the UK to be sending all its operational F-35’s to the far side of world. The final call will surely be made by Starmer.

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