HMS Prince of Wales has fired her Phalanx close-in weapon system as part of a training exercise.
The Phalanx CIWS is a close-in weapon system for defending against anti-ship missiles. It was designed and manufactured by the General Dynamics Corporation, Pomon Division (now a part of Raytheon).
Consisting of a radar-guided 20 mm (0.78 in) Gatling gun mounted on a swivelling base, the Phalanx is used by multiple navies around the world, including the Royal Navy and the United States Navy.
Angry Minion… engage!💥
Our Phalanx mounts are affectionately nicknamed Charlotte, Debbie, and Sarah… disturb them at your peril!#aWEsome pic.twitter.com/FwvcVceSaL
— HMS Prince of Wales (@HMSPWLS) November 19, 2024
The vessel will also soon be opening to the public. HMS Prince of Wales, is heading to Liverpool for a week-long visit, marking her first stay in the city since March 2020.
The aircraft carrier’s seven-day visit will include community engagement, public tours, and a Freedom of the City parade, according to a press release.
Entry is by ticket only and you must apply in advance by clicking here.
The Portsmouth-based warship, affiliated with Liverpool, will dock at the Cruise Liner Terminal on Monday, December 2, following training exercises in UK waters. The visit offers the ship’s 800-strong crew, including local sailors, the chance to connect with the community and highlight their contributions to the Royal Navy.
Commanding Officer Captain Will Blackett expressed pride in bringing the carrier back to Liverpool, a city with deep historical ties to the Royal Navy. He noted that the visit is a culmination of rigorous autumn training, providing an opportunity for the crew to showcase their work. “The ship’s company deserve recognition for their remarkable efforts, and this visit allows us to show you what we do,” he stated.
Among the crew is Sub Lieutenant Yasemin Dilek, a junior marine engineering officer from Liverpool, who described the carrier as her “home away from home.” She highlighted the ship’s connection to the city through its Liverpool-themed passageway names, adding, “The first sight of those two Liver birds, set against our gorgeous city skyline, will be a highlight I will cherish for the rest of my career.”
During the visit, the ship will host public tours on December 7 and 8, welcoming 10,000 guests each day. Tickets are required and can be obtained in advance. Visitors will experience a glimpse of life aboard the 932-foot warship, which serves as a floating symbol of British maritime strength and innovation.
The carriers
The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are the largest and most advanced warships in the Royal Navy, designed to serve as the primary components of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group. This class includes two vessels: HMS Queen Elizabeth, commissioned in December 2017, and HMS Prince of Wales, commissioned in December 2019. Built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, these carriers were developed at a total cost of approximately £7.6 billion. They replace the earlier Invincible-class carriers and are built to support a variety of maritime operations.
Each Queen Elizabeth-class carrier has a displacement of 65,000 tonnes and a length of 284 metres. Their propulsion is provided by integrated electric systems combining Rolls-Royce Marine Trent MT30 gas turbines with Wärtsilä diesel engines, producing a total power of 158,800 horsepower. These vessels are capable of speeds over 25 knots and can travel up to 10,000 nautical miles on a single mission. They have berths to accommodate up to 1,600 personnel, including crew and air support units.
The carriers can house an air wing of up to 40 aircraft, including F-35B Lightning II jets and Merlin helicopters for roles such as anti-submarine warfare and airborne early warning. The flight deck, equipped with a 12º ski jump, is optimised for short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) operations, enabling the launch and recovery of F-35B aircraft. The hangar deck provides additional space for the maintenance and storage of these aircraft, with dimensions of 155 m x 34 m x 7 m.
For defence and situational awareness, each carrier is outfitted with a Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS), 30 mm DS30M Mk2 guns, and heavy machine guns. The radar and sensor systems include the S1850M long-range radar and Type 997 Artisan 3D radar, providing extensive tracking and detection capabilities to support the carrier’s operations.
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To have a carrier defended by just 3x phalanx is just incompetence and reflective of a culture where cost cutting costs lives. Health and safety is number 1 concern in peacetime but somehow doesn’t apply when it comes to armed capabilities.
bloody ridiculous phalanx or phalanx. if we lost one of the carriers it would just about remove the royal navy from any major conflict the world laughs at our coastguard navy.
Don’t think so.
Its not defended by just 3 phalanx though, when deployed it has escorts, and before you say there are none with it now, its on a training cruise, we cant operate a full on CSG all the time
“To have a carrier defended by just 3x phalanx is just incompetence and reflective of a culture where cost cutting costs lives.”
Yes. But i am not sure it is only cost cutting.
For me is the same mistake that RN have been making since 70’s : one trick ponies.
Carrier only defence is aircraft
T45 AAW frigate incapable of ASW
T26 ASW frigate incapable of AAW
T31 Gunboat frigate incapable of AAW/ASW
This might make sense in a 100 ship navy – with caveat those navies with 100 ships are not doing it and building multi mission ships. Yes those ships have emphasis but are not a negation of other capabilities like RN ships.
You think the carrier is by itself!!sit down and have a word
And yet they remain the best defended airfields we have.
I see the media campaign to “Get the Carriers” is in full swing, no doubt fuelled by Russia and Chinese social media warfare, which is added to
by ignorance, and those with an agenda, so inter service rivalry politics, who blame the RN for their services own ills.
If a Carrier is that vulnerable, well:
Lets scrap all RAF Airfields as they are all STATIC, can never move, and have no GBAD or ESSM of any kind, and do not have Sea Viper, CAMM, and other assets defending them.
But you don’t hear a call to close them.
And lets scrap all British Army armoured vehicles, as there are Drones and most don’t have an APS, so they’re also sitting ducks.
But you don’t hear this either.
All assets have a degree of vulnerability, and all assets have a counter measure and a counter counter.
Finally, clearly other nations such as China, the US, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, S Korea and Japan have not got the brief as they are still using, building, and wanting Aircraft Carriers.
I trust in the fact that RN knows what it is doing more than posters opinions on this here, and that, if needed, the defensive armament would be supplemented quickly, just like what happened in the Falklands War.
While i am sceptical of surface ship survival if the air technologies and AI continue to evolve as they are, those nations put much more self defence in those carriers. The criticism is that your mobile airbase have only 3 Phalanx and escorts that might or not be present, available, functional.
As the detection difficulties against drones have shown the disruptive technologies that are appearing show that having self defence is crucial. The USS Eisenhower and its escorts recent failure against an Houthi missile shows that the hubris of perfection lead to disaster and things like redundancy/quantity are crucial.