The UK Carrier Strike Group, led by HMS Prince of Wales, will visit Australia in 2025.
The announcement was made during the AUKMIN summit in London, where British and Australian ministers outlined initiatives to enhance security and economic growth.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Defence:
“The UK Carrier Strike Group will also sail to Australia in 2025, in a further demonstration of the UK’s commitment Indo-Pacific security. HMS Prince of Wales will be the first Queen Elizabeth-class carrier to conduct a port visit to Australia. She will also participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre, a multinational exercise hosted by Australia involving nineteen nations.
Together, the UK and Australia are putting pressure on countries around the world to deter military cooperation with Russia. This includes the deployment of troops by North Korea to Russia and their supply of munitions, arms and other materiel. Both countries recognise Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security are indivisible.”
The Carrier Strike Group’s deployment will include participation in Exercise Talisman Sabre, a large-scale, multinational exercise hosted by Australia involving 19 nations. HMS Prince of Wales, one of the UK’s two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, will be the first of its kind to conduct a port visit to Australia, demonstrating the UK’s commitment to Indo-Pacific security.
Defence Secretary John Healey highlighted the strategic importance of this deployment, stating:
“Our unique and historic partnership with Australia is more important than ever in the face of increasing global threats. Today’s announcements demonstrate how our two nations, working in lockstep, can help drive jobs and growth while reinforcing our collective security.”
The deployment reflects the UK’s growing focus on the Indo-Pacific region as part of its broader security strategy. It comes as the UK and Australia strengthen cooperation under the AUKUS partnership, a trilateral defence agreement between the UK, Australia, and the US.
The Carrier Strike Group deployment follows a series of successful high-end military exercises and joint operations between the two nations, which Defence Minister Richard Marles described as “proof of the value of our cooperation.”
In addition to the carrier group’s visit, both nations are advancing shared defence initiatives. Australia will equip its Hunter-class frigates with Thales’ 2087 sonar, boosting undersea warfare capabilities while contributing £45 million to the UK economy. The creation of a new AUKUS Programme Interface Office in Bristol will also enhance collaboration between UK and Australian supply chains for the next generation SSN-AUKUS submarines.
No doubt the good people of Australia will get a chance to see on board, like the people of Liverpool. But the people in Pompey still won’t get a visit on board a carrier.
Bitter? You bet.
id imagine that the ship is ton lighter than it was before letting Scousers on it.
Typical anti-Scouse dig, obvious that you have never visited Liverpool or met any scousers, just the same old put down of scousers, you must be so proud of your recycled insults.
I hope they will have logistics vessels of their own accompanying her, in addition to a destroyer, a frigate and an SSN.
Her paying off tour, if today’s news items are anything like accurate….
🤣
Geoffi, do you have a reference? Is it the Daily Express? They are not trrustworthy on Defence reporting.
The Australian press reported back in August that POW was likely to visit Darwin in July 2025. That’s obviously on the north coast, will she travel south to the bright lights of Sydney is the big question. Doing that will need a precious 12+ days allocated from her very busy schedule.
carrier could dock at Darwin the jets could fly to sydney, take an austere refuel stop or can the aussies do some inflight refueling that would be a good capability to have.
Why would Australia want the jets to fly to Sydney we have 3 times the f35 the uk has
Into the port thats Chinese owned, next door to the American Airbase? You couldn’t make it up.
Let’s make absolutely sure that she has as full an aircraft compliment as possible. If we are going to impress let’s go to town.
Plus some additional defensive armaments and decoys!
Can we make an inflatable replica and tow it around with a sub? It would be a hell of a decoy.
Ask Iran, they are good at making plywood CVs.
That’s a brilliant idea for a RN ghost fleet!!! Lol. Giant rubber ship-ducks!!
Seriously though by decoys I’m talking Ancilia decoy and anti-torpedo mounts.
Should we be leaving the European theatre given the threats we are facing closer to home ?
Got a sneaky feeling indo pacific is going to be a lot more dangerous in the coming years compared to russia, look forward to us getting 3 percent of gdp on defence so we can have more presents over there.😂
We won’t get to 2.5% GDP, never mind 3%.
Oh come on it’s easy. You only have to reduce GDP by 20% to push defence spending from 2% to 2.5% of GDP. I’m sure a Labour government can manage that.
That’s a brilliant idea for a RN ghost fleet!!! Lol. Giant rubber ship-ducks!!
Seriously though by decoys I’m talking Ancilia decoy and anti-torpedo mounts.
RAF and Army for Europe. The RN for the east.
David, Why do we need aircraft carriers to provide air power in Europe? There are many NATO airbases to use, plus UK bases and Akrotiri.
Maybe ask blair & brown, some thinking Europe should do some of the heavy lift apart from USA and French were showing interest with QE carrier design. Air fields not always available when it’s a controversial mission
Maybe ask blair & brown, some thinking Europe should do some of the heavy lift apart from USA and French were showing interest with QE carrier design. Air fields not always available when it’s a controversial mission
We don’t need aircraft carriers for operations in Europe. But as North Korea has shown European affairs are influenced by countries in other parts of the world where we don’t have access to carry out operations. Basically we are a global village and we have to show that countries that make poor choices will have repercussions.
Crazy to send our only working carrier to the other side of the world – the aircraft on this vessel should be kept in Europe and the Middle East. We do not have enough aircraft to be in both places at once.
They are both working carriers
His point being Queen Elizabeth is due for dry docking and refit in 2025, Having PoW on the other side of the world if something kicks off closer to home is a tad worrying
It wouldn’t take the planes long to get back, and the RAF are capable of running them in Europe without a carrier.
Assuming the local issue that might need a carrier is a nato or other sufficiently big activity, did we not sign a reciprocal deal with france that meant they should have theirs available if we are out of area / unavailable?
More time spent in defence diplomacy implies less time in the risk zone of the SCS. This is essentially a scenic, shakedown cruise for a recently acquired capability, not a locked and loaded big game hunt in the SCS. That will come later in the 2020s or early 2030s w/ more F-35Bs, equipped w/ standoff weaps, new frigates, FSS, etc. 🤔😳
In reality I suspect no one in Europe wants to be kicking the CCP in the nuts before everyone knows how Trump will play the game..in reality UK deterrent engagement in the western pacific is about supporting our key ally the US, showing china that the U.S. has an extra carrier battle group it can call on for support. If it looks like Trump is going to walk away from the western pacific or Europe then there is very little geopolitical reason for Europe to run its key deterrents into chinas face and piss them off. The next few years… Read more »
Park her in Botany Bay, that would be an incredible sight
Or even better….Garden Island naval base. It’ll be quite a sight seeing her in Sydney harbour. Plenty of space and we’ll provide the sunny weather! 🇬🇧 🇦🇺
A run ashore in Fremantle in WA is always popular. A relatively long diversion, but it could also serve as a ‘proof of concept’ visit given the future growing importance of HMAS Stirling as an ‘Allied’ base. The commercial port has also hosted big Carriers before, the largest being the USS Constellation many years ago.
Deter Russia by sailing to Australia. Makes sense.
This capability was procured to give an expeditionary, power projection capability. That still needs exercising whether Russia is a threat or not.
There are worldwide threats and requirements beyond Russia.
Russia isn’t a threat they’ve already wrecked their armed forces in Ukraine. China on the other hand, free of the threat on their northern border, is a bigger threat than ever.
Great news. Now go to New Zealand, past pacific islands, over to west coast USA for exercises with them and Canada, down to chile, falklands, west Africa and home. Round the world always gets good press.
I hope they dont Park her permanently down under unless the crew went rogue on hearing she was to be sold or scrapped. Could remain a piece of sanity in an otherwise disastrous time for UK Defence.
So glad to hear this news – I will make an effort to see her. Invincible, Illustrious and Ark Royal all made port stops in Fremantle in the 1980s, and I still remember driving in to see this big bluish aircraft carrier towering over the wharf sheds. Tours were allowed on board, and the smell of the oil/grease on the flight deck, and the amazing Harriers; well, this memory is still with me 40 years later. The ships probably had come off a Monkey patrol and the crews would have enjoyed their stay in Freo. A good reminder that the… Read more »
I wonder how long we can poke the beast before it bites.
China is increasing its Navy and ground units at an exponential rate. Their tech is also becoming more advanced on all levels.
Do people not see that whilst we’re ranting on about whatever European topics, China is building more military machinery than we probably even know about.
Soon, it will be China vs the caveman.
And it won’t work out too well for those with sticks and rocks.