Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales has transited north through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and entered the Red Sea on October 27, according to satellite imagery and ship-tracking data.
The move marks the carrier’s return from its Indo-Pacific deployment as it makes its way toward the Mediterranean.
The eight-month mission, Operation Highmast, has been one of the most extensive Royal Navy deployments in years. HMS Prince of Wales led a multinational carrier strike group through the Indian and Pacific Oceans, operating alongside naval forces from Japan, South Korea, Norway, Canada, Spain, and other allies. The deployment aimed to reinforce partnerships, expand interoperability, and demonstrate the UK’s ability to project power across global sea lanes.
HMS Prince of Wales through the Bab al-Mandab Strait on the 26th, now in the Red Sea, Mediterranean bound. pic.twitter.com/xoi02slLTU
— Britsky (@TBrit90) October 27, 2025
Earlier this year, the carrier had entered the Indo-Pacific via the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, beginning the eastern leg of her deployment. By September, the strike group was operating in the Sea of Japan, conducting complex joint exercises with Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force and South Korea’s Navy. The drills included coordinated flight operations between British F-35B Lightning II jets and Japan’s F-15 and F-35A aircraft, as well as advanced medical evacuation and damage-control simulations involving allied vessels.
The strike group includes destroyer HMS Dauntless, frigate HMS Richmond, support ship RFA Tidespring, and partner vessels such as Norway’s Roald Amundsen. Around 4,500 British personnel are supporting the deployment, including sailors, Royal Marines, soldiers, and RAF aircrew. The group’s onboard medical teams, reinforced by the Maritime Medical Emergency Response Team (MMERT), also recently conducted a series of high-intensity training missions that tested their rapid-response capability at sea.
For its transit through the Red Sea, HMS Prince of Wales has been joined by a United States Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. The US vessel is part of the multinational effort to safeguard maritime traffic amid continued attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement.
Since late 2023, the Iran-backed Houthis have targeted commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, prompting a joint response under Operation Prosperity Guardian, led by the United States and United Kingdom.
British warships, including Type 45 destroyers, have previously intercepted incoming drones and missiles in the region, protecting shipping lanes vital to global trade.
Isn’t it about time we accepted that with emasculated F-35Bs, the QE ‘strike carriers’ are really just oversized LPHs?
Not really 2-3 squadrons of F35s is still a powerful force.. ask Iran.. Isreal regularly takes chunks out of it using its f35 force.
The American and Israeli f-35s are a far different thing than the UK ones
Yes they’ve got weapons to fit on them and they wouldn’t run out in a week unlike our utter joke of a military.
No they are the same.
You might want to do a little research…
No they are the same aircraft.. the UK has different weapons but the aircraft are exactly the same… a US f35b is the same as a UK f35b.. Israel uses the f35A and when the UK gets F35As they will be exactly the same.. but there is very little difference between the A and B a slightly different in range.. slightly different G limit( which is totally irrelevant) and the bomb bays can “only” take a 1000lb JDAM and not a 2000Ib JADM but unless your penetrating a deep bunker the 1000lb to 2000lb issue is irrelevant.. especially for the RAF who tend to like to drop 500lb bombs. But all the bits that matter and make the aircraft deadly are the same.. a B will do the same job as an A.
Everyone in the world knows that everyone in the world knows that. Remember, these are completely different aircraft try to follow along. Different range. Different bombays completely different. Try to keep up
Yes everyone in the world knows they are infact almost entirely the same aircraft.. it’s why the RAF are buying f35As for the OCU for its F35Bs squadrons.. keep up slow boy.
Now once through Suez fisheads repeat this mantra daily. “Must not lose another F35 in the Med”….
Ugly rumours and echoes of Cameron are circulating that only one carrier will be at sea at a time. Storing a carrier for a couple of years was the traditional way of coping with operational costs, but to me it’s the thin end of the wedge. Men in grey suits love such a situation as they can use the argument if one will do, why do you need two? I fear such a policy will lead to a Bulwark situation and sell-off.
They spent a lot of time showing it off to India….
i said this and was ridiculed. India has a history of buying used RN carriers and operating VSTOL. I can’t think of a more likely buyer if one was to be sold. I would be ok with it if RN then ordered an additional 4 escorts and the RAF another 36 Typhoons. That might better balance things
The issue with this is that India no longer needs to buy carriers from abroad. They’re more than capable of building their own, and the growing nationalistic sentiment around Indian naval procurement means that a foreign purchase would not draw widespread support. This is in addition to India’s dislike for the F-35, expressing far greater interest in the Russian Su-57, French Rafale and domestic programmes. India would be procuring a carrier without the aircraft required to operate it as a carrier, meaning that they’d have three options:
– Operate the carrier as a purely helicopter- or drone-based platform
– Fund a costly refit programme to fit the carrier with arresting cables
– Fund an extremely costly programme to purchase F-35B aircraft, or to develop their own STOVL system.
None of those are appealing options. For the first, there are much cheaper (and domestic) ways of achieving the same effect. The latter two are either prohibitively expensive or rely on major foreign support.
I highly doubt we’ll lose the carriers.
I think the possibility is actually India borrowing some of the technology and systems work around the Elizabeth.. selling British tec and knowledge for the next Indian carrier is a distinct possibility..
India does not have the option of buying the f-35. If they did they would.
There’s also the possibility of Japan may want a larger carrier. Why not sell them a licence to build?
There is a lot of ridicule dished out on here. People need to be more open minded. We have a socialist gooberment who would sell their grannies for cash. It would also do away with the need for more F35b’s…..And a rough estimate is a QE class could operate the Indians present naval fighters. Though with the “free trade” deal Starmer signed with them anything is possible.
The F-35 allowed the IAF to fly the skys of Tehran unchallenged! So more F-35s, please!
This was always the plan. There was never a serious intention to operate both carrier strike groups at the same time.
Correct, but the truth never really bothers most of the doomsayers here.
If both were still new and if both didn’t suffer from various breakdowns, then both would have probably been sailing around for a few years at the same time subject to various mainrtenence stops but we all know that these were never intended to be out there together in the longer term.
Various “Rumours” have been doing the rounds for decades now, I shouldn’t worry about them, It’s just people talking.
This trip seems to have been a fantastic and worthwhile adventure, finally showcasing their ability and capability to be on the other side of the world, not many other countries can do that.
When she comes back, she’ll be in for a deserved period of maintenence and upgrades with QE taking her place.
I’m hoping we will get to see the long and often promissed 24 F35B’s (UK) on her decks sometime soon.
If we can keep hold of both, they will soon have new escorts which combined, would make quite the spectacle/capability.
Quite agree with you.
As indeed do I. The reason for two is you guarantee one and furthermore this deployment has more than proven that the earlier mechanical glitch , prop shafts etc seem now resolved . Still keeping my fingers crossed until she’s safely home however but a huge amount seems to have been achieved on this deployment , and this on the back of a similarly successful around the world deployment by Queen Elizabeth in 2021 which being at the height of COVID was an achievement in itself. Enough from the doomsayers who seem to spend most of their waking hours knocking the UK and the RN in particular and lets for once give credit where it’s due.
She is expected to embark additional F35s from Akrotiri to get to 24 for an exercise In the med before heading home.
Yes Robert, so I heard a while back, It’s a shame she has to do so on the last part of the trip but I guess it helps to increase the knowledge and expertise.
True. But even the US Navy hasn’t deployed as many F35s as we have for such a long deployment.
That would be a lie and you know it
If they stood down a carrier that be such bad optics to save some running costs? We moan about our carriers but who is particularly happy? Steam catapults are over but replacement is not fully proven. And carrier jets, ask the French. I wish them well.
In reality 2 carriers only allows 1 at sea most of the time.. there is a rule of thumb you need 3 ships for 1 to always be ready to be deployed or be deployed if you look at the U.S. with its 11 carriers it will only have on average 4 at sea.
True, but this is different, it’s not a standard operational lifecycle of maintenance, training, deployed, recover. The current rumour (which has regularly occurred in similar forms for a decade) is that QE will go to low readiness (180 days?) with no crew (just a few maintainers) for perhaps four years, before having a refit and replacing POW as the active high readiness carrier c.2030. Basically repeating what was done with Albion and Bulwark between 2010 and 2024. The savings will be substantial (£100M p.a. ?) – not just from freeing the crew (theoretically over 700, but probably far less at the moment) and almost eliminating operating costs such as fuel, but QE herself can then be used as a convenient source of “free” spares and equipment for POW, until the process has to be reversed in 2030. Given the MOD’s current financial black hole (due to a perfect storm of inflation, big pay raises, Ukraine, Chagos Islands payments and massive cost overruns by the DNE) I fear it is actually going to happen this time.
I don’t think 180 days would be an issue to be honest.. some of the US carriers will be in 6months readiness.. the Albion’s were not really at 6 months readiness.. they were essentially placed in reserve at a point they needed a years refit. As long as they swapped over the ready carrier at a reasonable cycle so as not to leave the low readiness carrier to deteriorate. Store robbing is not such a good idea unless it’s an emergency.. it’s far more cost effective to take a spare from stores.. so I hope they don’t do that.
Not sure if the RN goes by the rule of 3 at all. It orders 8s of this, 5s of that, 2s of this and even 7s. Only sometimes in 3s or 6s. If they want the rule of three they’ll need to top things up a bit to be consistent.
Why do we repeat history with our defence equipment?
Blair wanted to be on a par with America, but originally we were to partner with the French on carriers. The French pulled out due to economy
Blair originally wanted to share design costs with France some argument for a franco Anglo carrier arrangement. They pulled out and brown wanted jobs in Scotland. Sorted
By all accounts a successful deployment. Congratulations to all on the months of hard work making it happen.
Exactly my thoughts too.
Hopefully dispels the myth they “break down.” Lets get back to Pompey
Exactly, our carrier strike ability might have taken far longer to generate than we had all hoped, but that is mainly down to drip fed funding in procurement and poor decision making like Crowsnest.
It’s reaching a level of maturity now, once the F35B improves its availability and UK weapons are integrated ( or US alternatives are fielded) and we have capable drones on deck, CS will be a very capable tool to reach for.
The increase in funding should facilitate this relatively quickly I hope.
Well, the carriers haven’t broken down. Unfortunately, there were those two unfortunate incidents with the F-35Bs in India and Japan, which, whilst not operationally serious, have produced some poor optics for the RN and RAF.
To be fair, its not uncommon for USN aircraft to divert from a carrier to a diversion Airfield on occasions too when faults occur.
Lots of complexity and ‘many’ moving parts, specifically when you consider the F35B!
I agree with you fully, I was more commenting on the optics produced amongst the general public.
It’s funny really in the UK we pan the RN for two aircraft safety landing in land based airfields.. yet the USN lose two aircraft to accidents in 1 day.. we are so good at hyperbolic hair pulling in the UK..
Agree a good trip involved friends and potential friends we need to protect democracy.
Agreed.
Anyone know the status of Dauntless? She had to skip several exercises in order to undergo an assisted defect rectification period in Singapore. If she hasn’t rejoined the CSG (or isn’t fully operational) than I assume that at least one USN Arleigh Burke destroyer is escorting the CSG through the Red Sea and providing air defence.
She’s with the CSG, this was confirmed soon after they left Singapore. You can see her in the satellite images.
There is also an American destroyer, presumably for additional BMD capability.
Yes, the American DDG is reportedly USS Mitscher (DDG-57). If so, she’s one of the Flight Is that received the full Aegis Baseline 9 upgrades. Though the ship is old, the Aegis capabilities are among the most advanced available.
We still have the icing on the cake to look forward to: 24 British F-35s on deck.
The fact that HMS Lancaster is returning to the UK in the next few weeks to be decommissioned, I wondered if she might have attached her self to the CSG and come home together?
Should be diverted to Sudan. That’s getting properly ugly. May need to step in.
Why the hell should we “step in”? It’s the responsibility of African nations to intervene in African problems. I notice they’re all sitting on their back sides, doing nowt and waiting for the white man to come and sort it all out for them (for which, of course, we get no thanks). We need to stop getting involved in foreign affairs – we have far too many problems of our own as it is. We are Not the world’s police! 🤨
Lol,nothing to do with us,why should a small,broke third world nation that’s miles away stick it’s silly socialist nose into that shite.
Delusional.
8 months away is a fairly long stretch. I hope everyone gets a chance to unwind.
That said I think its regrettable we dont have more resources for the Hurricane season in the Windies. I think it should be possible to buy a suitable ship, maybe a small (if such exist) Ro-Ro as an emergencies Support Ship with the necessary kit on board. This could be charged to the FCO’s budget to reinforce our dwindling stock of goodwill in the WIndies/American Station. I cant understand why this is, but still.
Pity the Carrier didn’t drop by into ‘Traitors Lagoon’ in our new rental in the Chagos!
The USS Mitscher, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, has joined CSG25 to escort it through to the Eastern Med. Apparently Dauntless has finally joined CSG25 which otherwise is down to just Prince of Wales and its faithful shadow HNoMS Roald Amundsen. RFA Tideforce has been detached for other tasks, and it’s not clear where Richmond has gone.