The Kings Flagship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, has sailed for trials ahead of a Carrier Strike Group deployment later this year.
The Royal Navy say here that “Carrier Strike offers Britain choice and flexibility on the global stage; it reassures our friends and allies and presents a powerful deterrent to would-be adversaries.
Protected by a ring of advanced ships, submarines and helicopters, and equipped with fifth generation fighters, HMS Queen Elizabeth is able to strike from the sea at a time and place of our choosing; and with our NATO allies at our side, we will be ready to fight and win in the most demanding circumstances.”
The first female FDO on a QE Class carrier has brought on the first of our aircraft as we make preparations to sail. Flying jets and helos, the next two weeks will prove our Carrier Strike capability as we prepare for our #CSG23 deployment. #KingsFlagship #GlobalModernReady pic.twitter.com/hhsoFfSLLw
— HMS Queen Elizabeth (@HMSQNLZ) July 10, 2023
HMS Queen Elizabeth also announced on Twitter that the first female Flight Deck Officer (FDO) on a Queen Elizabeth (QE) Class carrier has overseen the landing of the first batch of aircraft in preparation for the upcoming deployment.
The tweet from the HMS Queen Elizabeth account stated:
“The first female FDO on a QE Class carrier has brought on the first of our aircraft as we make preparations to sail. Flying jets and helos, the next two weeks will prove our Carrier Strike capability as we prepare for our #CSG23 deployment.”
This historic milestone highlights the ongoing diversification in roles within the Royal Navy. Over the next two weeks, the female FDO will be responsible for coordinating the launching and landing of various aircrafts, including jets and helicopters, as part of the readiness training for the #CSG23 Carrier Strike Group deployment.
The importance of this event extends beyond the confines of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, demonstrating the Royal Navy’s commitment to gender equality and the growing role of women in traditionally male-dominated fields.
Not enough planes
No missiles
Where are the photon torpedoes
and where are the MQ-9 drones to provide decent AEW?
Surely BAe have some F-35B mock ups to stick on the flight deck to give the crew something to do whilst they wait for the USMC.
Yaaaawn, no need, we have plenty to ensure training value to all concerned. To say otherwise is just wrong and troll like.
They do that at SFDO, no need on board unless you have an agenda with that little snipe?
Things change, the old days weren’t always best Andy, no matter what our memories think. Just because the RN isn’t full of iron clads, big 15″ guns and gallons of rum, doesn’t make it worse. It makes it different, with different capabilities, facing different and changing challenges. However, I think we will both agree in an ideal world that politics and politicians need to stay out of military planning and procurement, but that isn’t ever going to happen, and it never has.
Mate Antrim and Arrow I presume? 👍
Inflatable F35’5 tied down so that they don’t float away lik dirigibles.
The banner photo must be from the big 2021 deployment given the number of F35’s on deck!
Sure it’ll be something like 8 embarked for the autumn deployment with maybe another USMC detachment to beef the air-group up.
We will I believe have 29 by the end of the year but pilot training has been slow and problematic. Additionally despite some improvement the F35 is still very technically demanding and expensive to operate.
The UK now has 31 F35’s. There will be 36 by the end of the year!
Everything is slow when we talk about ANY of the British ARMED forces. We don’t exactly broadcast it much do we? Born in Blythe, made in the royal navy? That’s pathetic. When I was a kid, scribbling on my slat with a piece of chalk, the school was showing the old ark royal sailing film, and the warship programme with a Leander called h.m.s hero. We must learn to sell the career better than we do.
In 2021 yes.
True Andy but the newly announced pay award has to come from existing budgets as no new money will be given to support it. I guess this means that the unfunded T32 has even less chance of actually being produced. Defence on a shoe string!
My God the flight deck is empty, where’s the C17s, the Nimrods, lightnings, buccaneers (in the old days we had real carriers with 400 Buccaneers on all carrying 10000lb bombs) Why only such a small defensive armament, what the hell does the RN know about warships, weapons, tactics, where’s the offensive weaponry, 15″ guns, lasers, why only a type 45 and type 23 escort, in the old days we had hundreds of escorts all carrying the best weapons in the world, in fact the death star had more weapons, now that was a real carrier………… yaaaaaaaaaaawn! Just thought I would… Read more »
The UK invented how modern carriers work, yet it has none. Without cats and traps and a proper airwing, the RN carriers are little more then bigger “thru deck cruisers”. The RN should of had the E-2D, F-35C, all operated by the FAA, not the RAF. Two carries was over ambitious from the start. 1 nuclear carrier is what was required, working in sync with the French. The Merlin AEW and F-35B are too short on range compared to SuperHornets/F-35C and E-2D.
Nope, not what the RN thinks, and with all due respect, they will be the ones we consider, not a keyboard warrior with a history of negative and incorrect and ill informed posts. Cheers.
You of all people know the RN carriers were designed by politicians not the admiralty.
Me of all people? Not me, not ex RN, and my previous statement stands. Cheers.
I struggle to see the advantages of having 2 massive carriers that have to get close to the shore.
Absolutely clueless.
You would appear to struggle to see as a matter of routine. Cheers.
Let’s see how the French get on with their one pang. Emals now hopefully reliable but now waiting on a 5 th gen carrier fighter. They use 2 Hawkeyes to America’ s 5 per carrier. Very expensive and exclusive to be in the cat n traps club. Agree we need crows nest replacement.
One word for crows nest replacement OSPREY.
I agree lets polish up what we can afford and have two FAA squadrons of F35’s ASAP. I’d love a navalised ‘Fury’ version of the Tempest but highly improbable; although down the road it would have a market in the Indo-Pacific if we invested with partners.
Absolutely. I think in 10 years most ‘fixed wing’ attack a/c will be drones. Indications are these will have folding wings and be lighter than the F35’s. Because these are unmanned; I think the FAA will have a more complete handle on deployment on the carriers. Not to say there wont remain a closer joint force with the RAF than in the past, to their mutual benefit.
really so you want a nuclear carrier that like the french is only available 50% of the time?
Also in a war what pros are there to nuclear? no refueling. Yet the jp jet fuel and weapons and food need replenishment anyway so the RFA will be needed. So you want to give up a carrier for no obvious gain. Im afraid I have heard very few naval experts that agree with you. What happens when it kicks off and our carrier is in for nuclear refueling?
Mate, you need to read through the decision history of the QE class carriers. Paying particular attention to why it was finally decided to go down the short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) route, rather than catapult assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR). As a good example, look at the USN’s USS Ford. A $10B+ nuclear powered carrier. Which was the first to include an electromagnetic launch system (EMALS) and a revolutionary advanced arrested recovery system (AARS). This carrier cannot operate the F35C, it still has not been cleared for EMALS or AARS. The carrier has officially been in… Read more »
I think DaveyB is one of the last people you’d call “armchair” on this forum Andy. You’re having a go at the wrong poster.
Cheers Dan, appreciated
No worries. No way was I allowing that to stand without a comment. Combat ops in Afghan and no doubt elsewhere, 1000 plus jumps ( I’m sure you said once ) and a SME here on aircraft, aerodynamics, missile performance, and much else.
Armchair….nooo.
Respect.
Never made it to Admiral, I wasn’t politically correct enough. Spoke my mind to much and I really can’t tolerate fools. Though I did go up from the ranks and got a nice pair of brown shoes if that helps!
I hope you feel better for that, sometimes it’s best to just express your inner Karma 🤣 IMHO it needs a lot of things like CAMMS, more F35B, AW101 and Sistership that works. But in reality and along with every other thing we moan about on this site, we are all overlooking the fundamental truth and everything else is irrelevant. Like all of our issues it all boils down to just 2 simple little things. It needs a Government that is fully committed to properly funding Defence and a Civil Service that can actually manage to competently spend that funding.… Read more »
👍
yaaaaaawn indeed.
Have another drink. It’ll make worse sense to you then.
I will up drink, if you give up climbing the fence into the US, deal?
I fear this thread will not go well.
True…
It’s the usual suspects falling out with each other over and over again. Some folk need to get out of the playground more.
£ against the $ is a bit better. Surely we can put an order in for another 48 f35s?
I agree 5 more T31’s as well. RAF 3 f35 Squadrons, Navy 5 f35 Squadrons and one training Squadron. Upgun the OPVs.
The RN is working hard to regenerate its carrier capability. From a (nearly) clean sheet start 10 tens after all our naval fixed wing air capability was scrapped the RN has brought in to service two world class carriers, with the RAF and RN bringing a 5th generation combat aircraft into service as well. That is two hugely complex inter-related projects being brought forward to provide a global capability, as proven by the CSG21 deployment. No other second tier power as achived that. Yes there is still a lot of development work to do and both the RN and RAF… Read more »
Bravo mate.
I remember a labour government in the 1960s abandoning our dependence on aircraft carriers it’s good to see that once again with have the capability to defend our country against foreign aggressors my father said in 1964 that abandoning the aircraft carrier we would regret it in the future he was right . The Falklands proved that in 1982 . Had we had an aircraft carrier like the Queen Elizabeth we would have destroyed the enemy and saved lives .I am dreading a Labour government taking office and once again reducing our aircraft carriers capability to negative we cannot depend… Read more »
Me too. Maybe things won’t be as bad as previous incarnations. I doubt it, sadly. As I have said before, I will be here looking for all the Labour supporters with short memories as niche capabilities ( which we excel at ) are thrown away for a few thousand more army personnel which, strategically, make no difference at all, where the loss of ships, carriers, amphibs, jets, ISTAR, whatever, do.
Thanks Daniele. Sadly, too few people seem to understand how complicated these things are. When I was still ‘in the business’ a colleague of mine was working on sortie generation modelling for the QEC. The computer model he built had to consider how the aircraft were moved around the ship from flight deck to hangar, around the flight deck, through the launch cycle, landing back on and taxiing out of the way, etc. throw in different aircraft types (helicopers etc) and different turn around times and there are a lot of variables to deal with. STOVL definately achieved the highest… Read more »
Not at all. You’re a science SME here mate. Respect.
That’s very kind of you mate, although I’m not sure about the ‘expert’ bit as I was a bit of a generalist i.e. did lots of different stuff hopefully well enough to help different groups of experts get it together. If only on a very small scale in a very big machine.
I’d also point out that your knowledge about the Army’s force structure and capabilities always impresses me.
Respect right back to yer, mate 🙂
Cheers CR
It would be interesting to see how his model is adapted to include the use of large drones that are catapult launched and use an arrested landing?
I imagine sortie generation will actually go down. As you have to maneuver the drone in place, attach to the shoe etc. which then slows down launching aircraft from the ramp. Unless the two operations can be done in parallel. Which I guess will be determined by where the catapult is located in the deck.
What’s actually happening with POW these days? Any sign of it going to sea on operations?
Wiki says, “On 15 May 2023 the Secretary of State for Defence denied that she was being cannibalised and mothballed and said that she would be in full service by the autumn (of 2023).”
So if that’s still on track we’re close to her being back in service.
It would be interesting to know the scale of the realigning of the shafts and how much cut and shut has been involved. We may find out in a year or two but I’m still amazed with laser tech they didn’t sort this during her build.
I’m sure it’s the American’s fault
What the big fence you have to climb over to get into the US, yep their fault!
I read somewhere recently that she will be rejoining the fleet this Autumn. I understand they took the opportunity to do quite a bit of work and inspection that was due in the near future e.g. a Lloyds hull inspection I think, plus other stuff (I think they also took the opportunity to have a good look at the other shaft as well…). Kept her in dry dock longer than was really necessary just for the repairs to the shaft but avoided another expensive docking in the near future (I believe that each emptying and refill cycle has a cost… Read more »
‘Well said’. Spot on..
Sad
Don’t we have another carrier? Seems like a long time ago; forgotten her name now.
When is PoW available again ?
And then everyone complains about the French carrier being only available 50% of the time lol