HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group have returned home after three weeks of flying operations in the North Sea and Scandinavia, say the Royal Navy.
HMS Diamond, HMS Kent, HMS Richmond and RFA Tidesurge escorted the aircraft carrier.
“The fleet flagship was at the heart of a task force consisting of five warships, F-35B Lightning jets from 617 Squadron and Wildcat and Merlin helicopters. The group stopped in Oslo, Norway’s capital, to reaffirm bonds with one of the UK’s closest NATO and Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) allies before continuing training in the North Sea on their journey back to Portsmouth – with more fast jet pilots qualifying to operate from the carrier. HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Strike Group made up the northern ‘arm’ of the Royal Navy’s Operation Achillean, which has also seen an amphibious task group spearheaded by HMS Albion exercising in the Mediterranean.”
Commodore Angus Essenhigh, Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, was quoted as saying:
“Operation Achillean has been an excellent opportunity to bring together and exercise the complex array of capabilities that make up the UK Carrier Strike Group. With our exceptional people at its core I have been very pleased at what the CSG has achieved in a small space of time often in challenging weather.
With many new faces across the Strike Group, we have gelled as a team and reset our currency, conducting safe yet rigorous training alongside our bilateral, JEF and NATO partners. A fantastic visit to Oslo to reaffirm the strength of the bilateral relationship with Norway was the icing on the cake.”
You can read more on this here.
Well done to all. These Carrier Strike Group operations demonstrate the close working between the RN and our allies, which is always good to see.
This years deployment has been pretty short but we knew that regenerating the group would be a challenge given the huge achievements of CSG21, not helped with the issues with HMSPW.
The RN continues to punch well above its weight and deserves our support and more importantly a proper thought through long term strategy to expand capabilities. As do all our armed services to be frank.
Cheers CR
Where did this nonsense about the UK “punching above its weight” come from? The UK has the fifth or sixth (depending on table) largest GDP in the world. It is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Given the state of its armed forces, it’s hardly “punching above its weight.” South Korea and Poland may be punching above their weights, but the UK certainly isn’t.
The punching above it’s weight is more about what it achieves with the small forces it has. It deploys more ships more often to more locations than most navies. The small army and marines are very well trained and can accomplish more with less numbers than most other countries forces etc etc.
Nonsense. Sending an out of date destroyer by itself through the South China Sea is not projecting power or a military threat to anyone. It certainly doesn’t scare the Chinese. This is the old Victorian gunboat diplomacy mentality. Basing two frigates in the Middle East is not power projection. The British Army can deploy one armored brigade and sustain it for two months, at best. It doesn’t matter how well trained it is and the Royal Marines, however good they are, just aren’t large enough to be a factor in any large scale conflict. The UK is the nation with… Read more »
Which out of date destroyer was that exactly?
I did the RN is punching above its weight. I said nothing about the UK.
My comment was aimed at the men and women in the services, not the Government or nation as a whole.
Also I did say that all our Armed Service need to be expanded, which clearly implies that they are too small. If you have read my other posts you will know that I regularly say the services are way too small.
CR
Well said CR, good commentary!
Great to see QE sustaining such a heavy workload in the absence of PoW. It fully validates the sense of having two carriers. While the air group is small, I can totally see the sense in waiting for Block 4 airframes and it seems to me to be unfair to blame the UK for development and delivery times that are driven by a US contractor. I do think that the F35 should primarily be a Fleet Air Arm asset which can be deployed from land bases when needed and not the other way around. Our primariy long range strike platform… Read more »
we make the helmet maybe configure for UK weapons first then release the American block when we are good and ready.
Problem with that is they would source another helmet. We can’t source another short take off vertical landing jet. I don’t think block 4 is being held back on purpose. It’s a question of how badly is it wanted and how many more resources are available to get it working.
To a certain extent that’s the capability SPEAR will give, you can get with in 70km of the target and launch SPEAR but stay LO or you can lob a Storm shadow from 300km. storm shadow is expensive and you only get two rather than 8 shots. Ultimately Typhoon is probably better at lobbing big missiles like storm shadow flying higher and with better kinetic performance.
The def sec said that meteor integration was being brought forward to 2025. Does that go for Spear as well?
Interesting I missed that.
I suspect USN and USMC have given LM a kick and said they need the Brits up to speed as the carriers are vital to integrated planning.
Maybe but it’s probably more to do with the orders we seen recently. Also Japan going all in helps as they will be using a meteor derivative. f35 weapons load out like the US weapons load out is also looking a bit dated. True 5th generation weapons like Meteor, SPEAR and Stomrbreaker are needed to keep the platform relevant in the face of Chinese 5th Gen aircraft.
I’m not sure how ‘5th Gen’ the Chinese aircraft actually are.
Given the known issues that have had copying the Russian engines they may well not be as impressive as they look?
Well hopefully we don’t have to find out. Up to 10 years ago most of China’s stuff could be said to not be great. But the money put into it now is massive. The Chinese are really trying. There goal has always been to secure the South China Sea and a few hundred miles off the coast. Now what China is building is showing they may be looking further than that.
I found this report on China interesting.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-06/pentagon-report-china-military-expanding-nuclear-arsenal/101733936
There were a few interesting titbits in last month’s questioning from the Defence Select Committee nominally on US and NATO, which possibly got swamped by the “3% is an aspiration” comment and the completion of Ajax User Validation trials.
ITAR was busily killing exports to friendly nations with tech. And preventing collaborative projects.
However, I still think it has done it job and fortunately the UK government has wised up to how the US uses ITAR.
I think AUKUS sub deal is naive. As it will spell the end of sovereign UK SSNs.
You are living in a fantasy world. The whole idea that the UK carriers were going to be manned by US Marine Jets is just ridiculous. The UK might have thought that but the US does when it’s convenient sure. If an actual war kicks off which is on the wrong side of the planet for the UK. Everything will be going there to replace the massive losses that will come with fighting a first tier opponent. That’s kind of like well we will rely on our allies for airborne early warning… Maritime patrol… The list goes on and on.
We have done this to death many times.
In an **alliance** confrontation QEC would be more than useful to the **allies** who also have F35B.
You may have heard that Japan and a few others intent to buy F35B as well?
There is this fantasy that only the UK have bought F35B whereas it is actually selling very well. Better than the C variant, for sure, which has but a single customer.
Which first tier opponent are you on about? I didnt think we would be going to war with Japan.
Wow the biggest post for a while from Mr sad! What’s up, Mrs Esteban busy again, UK carrier group in town?
SPEAR test firing has been delayed to 2023 and that’s from a Typhoon not an F35 so block IV not an issue. Nothing has been said about SPEAR deployment on F35 yet but I’m guessing until we the missile is actually working the won’t be able to put any pressure on LM to move it up in the Block IV queue so 2027 is probable.
Meteor on F35? You sure? Thought it was AMRAAM only and Meteor was for Typhoon.
JSM has five times the range of Spear (vital for keeping distance between the carrier and its target) and can be used against ships as well as land targets which Storm Shadow can’t. It’s a far better missile than either of them. Personally I’d fit 50% of F35’s with Spear and 50% with JSM
The weapons fill completely different tasks although there is some overlap. JSM is an anti ship missile and SPEAR is primarily for SEAD and ground attack. Ideally you want both but if I’m launching large expensive missiles from a distance I can do that with a 4th Gen aircraft. The main point in F35 is allowing the aircraft and its sensors to get up close and SPEAR is tailored to give the F35 that ability. It’s range allows it to operate in a sweet spot where it can see S400 but S400 can’t se it.
The whole point of a carrier is yo deploy air power where you can’t strike from land bases so Typhoon armament isn’t relevant. That’s why both missiles are needed on the F35
Yes and no, Carrier’s have been used far more in support of land operations in the past when land basing was available but may have been limited or distant. If I’m strapping an external missile on to my F35B for hitting long range targets then I would take the LRASM. JSM is a bit short ranged and more ideal for F35A that can carry internally.
However I do very much agree that our F35B needs a longer range weapon optimised for ship attack. SPEAR is an amazing weapon but limited in a naval environment.
There’s alway in flight refuelling. Not many places too far away from land based tankers.
That doesn’t solve the problem of over flight rights or crew fatigue for land based aircraft.
https://eurasiantimes.com/buying-f-35-fighters-biggest-mistake-of-australia-us-jets/
Pinch of salt. This journal continually puts down NATO assets, however, it seems we are being prudent waiting for block 4.
Very prudent indeed and it will give us something to look forward to by the end of this decade plus the prospect of new engines if required and if we can afford them at some point in the future. “The only solution to these problems is a significant upgrade to the Block 4 operating system software, which is being advocated by Lockheed Martin and is reportedly running years late, with delivery expected before 2027. Also, it is going to be very expensive. This may require a significant upgrade to the existing Pratt & Whitney F135 Engine, or possibly even a… Read more »
america surely wants us to be in the carrier game if we have a carrier or two it frees an american carrier from the atlantic to the pacific. block 4 should come asap, whilst israel F35i ‘s are somehow bombed up with their own gear
Very true that USN and USMC /NATO planning does involve QEC.
It gives more option.
More options are good as it gives redundancy and resilience as well as keeping others guessing.
We appear to require block 4 it appears if the experts are correct and we need the F-35 in this type of scenario in the future. Interesting read. “For years, Air Force officials have portrayed the F-35 as the aircraft that it would use to infiltrate into enemy airspace to knock out surface-to-air missiles and other threats without being seen. However, in the war game, that role was played by the more survivable NGAD, in part due to the F-35′s inability to traverse the long ranges of the Pacific without a tanker nearby, Hinote said. Instead, the F-35 attacked Chinese… Read more »
If it was up to the Pentagon then yes, however LM owns congress and Israel literally just bribes it’s way into an”alliance” with the USA. It that political lobbying that would be illegal for the UK to do that got Israel their own ability to modify F35 code.
I’m sure they will as China ramps up its own carriers and continues to build warships at an alarming pace.
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/china-begins-work-on-third-aircraft-carriers-catapult-system
You should know better than to even bother reading the headline of that Indian blog, especially in times like these.
Eurasian times is a shocking anti western publication and the Aussie press constantly comes out with scare story like this. Block 3F F35 is light years beyond anything else in China or Australias inventory, that being said unless you have Uncle Sam’s deep pockets picking up too many aircraft before block IV is costly as they will likely be written off. We have had the luxury to wait given the role of our F35B and the capability if Typhoon however Australia has been operating is a difficult threat environment and doing a Canada and stretching out F18 did not seem… Read more »
I’m pretty sure Australia has 54 F35As
I though that too!
It is a bit of an exaggeration to say that 3F would be written off in a Blk4 upgrade.
The early orange wire UK ones might be uneconomical to upgrade but they are only ever going to go to Boscombe or maybe OCU to use up frame hours.
The block 3F is still way better than a standard hornet and is the best available aircraft today. Block 4 doesn’t suddenly make it rubbish it just makes a better version
There was nothing much wrong with our Apache D in fact they were far superior to anything in the US inventory and Tranche 1 Typhoons are far superior to anything Russia has and have plenty of life time in the airframes and both are in the process of becoming Razer blades. Modern weapons are so complicated and defence contractors so expensive and incompetent that even a minor difference insoftware and hardware across fleets can see them junked and from my understanding Block III Block IV F35B is as big a jump as Tranche 1 to Tranche 3B on typhoon.
Sounds like it was written by someone from the Chinese embassy, amazing what you can do when you take quotations out of context.
Just a quick pit stop as she is now in the Med just off Malta.
What makes you think that?
Just had a notification from marine traffic3hours 8 mins ago.
If you are talking about QNLZ then something is being spoofed as she is currently alongside in Portsmouth. I recommend the Portsmouth Harbor web cam on HMS Warrior. You can see her stern.
Iain, just had a look and it seems she is indeed in Portsmouth. The ais tracking is pretty vague most of the time. A couple of sites are showing the spoof off Malta.
Edit Just checked my notifications for her and although she arrived on 01 Dec marinetrafficsent several messages about her in the Irish Sea upto todays spurious message, guess I will be looking elsewhere for my shipping info.
Sorry if I caused anyone any confusion.
Lets hope operating one carrier is not a precursor to just that.
The other one is being fixed….
Yep but hopefully not to sell in a few years time. We do have history of selling off assets when times are tough. There will be a politician or 2 pointing France and others with just one carrier. This not what I want to happen just my trust in the political class of both parties is at an all time low.
Good thing about making the carriers so big is that few people would ever want to buy them. The only country I can think that would be in the market for something that large now is Russia.
Politically it’s just easier to keep the two even if one is ran at a reduced rate which was actually what was suppose to happen after SDSR 2010.
India, US or Brazil would snap 1 up at the right price. Japan could be in the running also. Politically I doubt the public would care much it would be framed as a necessary step to keep the country on its feet. At best Politically it would be news for about a day or 2. Quite tolerable especially if done at the start of a political term in office.
Big news from the US Bell V280 chosen for Blackhawk replacement
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2022/12/army-chooses-bell-v-280-replace-its-black-hawk-helicopters/380487/
Big news, crows nest could go the tilt rotor route if unmanned drones can’t perform.
Presumably as U.K. have a watching brief on this program and timeline dovetails with crowsnest replacement and V280 also has the capability to do tanking duties.
Here is hoping, a small fleet of tilt rotors for AEW and COD would free up the Merlin’s to focus on ASW and provide QE with a sensor capability much more inline with a CVN.
For all those in favour of the trad helo, the V280 is faster 100mph higher top speed, has twice the range 800 v 360, carries 25% more payload and is more survivable. According to Bell, the V-280 Valor is an extremely capable tiltrotor aircraft that offers a combination of conventional helicopter and airplane capability sets. With a claimed top speed as high as 305 knots (originally 280, hence its name), or approximately 350 miles per hour, the Valor beats the Black Hawk’s top speed by better than 100 miles per hour, alongside a high sling-load capability and the skill sets… Read more »
Well knock me done with a feather. Not only have the USAF just revealed to the World the B21 Raider (well just the front anyways!). But just as significantly the US Army has just announced the winner of the future medium vertical lift program. The winner is not the aircraft I thought would win. As the winner is the Bell Textron V280 Valor! I honestly thought that the Boeing-Sikorsky SB1 Defiant would be the winner. Purely as it was the less risky option. Plus it’s more suited to landing in urban environments. But no, it seems they have decided that… Read more »
I’m not sure if it is a more complicated aircraft. However, there will now be a period of development by the end of which it might well be.
Interesting that Australia is increasingly being linked with B21 purchase through AUKUS. Obviously US Congress is absolute poison when it comes to such things but would potentially open up a route to the UK operating strategic bombers again. A small fleet of 5-7 B21 in RAF service on a similar model to RC135 operations would be a real game changer for the RAF for the price of a few billion quid. It would not exactly be fantasy fleet levels of funding and would be an amazing compliment to our Typhoons and versatile if short legged F35B’s. Crewing numbers are much… Read more »
We got conned with the f35b, it carriers less fuel and weapons than the other two variant and,we can’t even put our own missels on them , but Israel can do whatever they want with theirs,plus suppose to be level one partners for the f35 program, but we only have 26 out of the first order of 48, other countries have received more than us,we made a big mistake not to put cats and traps on at least one of the carriers,then we would not be stuck with the f35b,at least then we would have more options for different air… Read more »
We are making and getting paid to make 15% of every F35 irrespective of model. Thats looking at 2500-3000 aircraft over the lifetime of the program. Add to that spares support then the costings for UKPLC and MoD mean we are not actually paying for any of the aircraft we buy. Israel and everyone else buying the jet ( Italy, Japan, Aus etc) is paying us to buy our aircraft.
Until BL4 comes in we can live with a low delivery rate.
What block are the aircraft we have already?