The Royal Navy has deployed the largest number of F-35B Lightning jets ever embarked on a British aircraft carrier as HMS Prince of Wales leads the UK Carrier Strike Group into the Mediterranean for Exercise Falcon Strike.
According to the Royal Navy, 24 British F-35Bs from 809 Naval Air Squadron and 617 Squadron are now aboard the carrier, the highest number of fifth-generation fighters ever assembled on either of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth-class ships.
The aircraft will train alongside Italian, US and Greek forces in complex day and night missions designed to improve NATO’s combined air and maritime combat capability.
Commodore James Blackmore, Commander of the Carrier Strike Group, said the deployment marked a significant milestone.
“The upcoming exercises with NATO allies will be a real demonstration of the warfighting readiness of the UK Carrier Strike Group,” he said. “This eight-month deployment, covering over 26,000 nautical miles and engaging with 40 nations, reinforces the UK’s position as a leading European power delivering fifth-generation aircraft and carrier capabilities to NATO.”
The strike group’s return to the Mediterranean follows five months of operations in the Indo-Pacific as part of Operation Highmast, a global deployment designed to demonstrate British reach and reinforce alliances across multiple regions. Italian frigate ITS Luigi Rizzo has joined the group for the latest phase, alongside Norwegian and British warships, bringing the combined force to around 4,000 personnel.
During a recent stop in Souda Bay, Crete, command of Prince of Wales passed from Captain Will Blackett to Captain Ben Power. Supporting ships include Type 23 frigate HMS Richmond, which has conducted anti-submarine warfare exercises with the Greek Navy, and Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless, which held a remembrance service at the Commonwealth Graves site in Crete.
An article on the 1.6 billion of losses and write offs in MoD accounts for this financial year would be good.
Amongst the items listed RN wise is the cancellation of HMS QE getting SRVL.
A sad list of cuts and cancellations that contrasts with the rubbish HMG keep coming out with about increased investment and war footings.
Still, if MoD is so incapable that it cannot control it’s in year budget, every little helps!
Did they not realise that SRVL was a dead-end, and not super useful, due to the danger posed to other aircraft and crew on the flight deck?
Well the NL article highlights the value of munitions and fuel lost if it’s not employed, but also suggests the money is going towards the hybrid Drone Wing side.
Whatever, MoD has spaffed money which is written off.
On this article, and some positivity, a good number of jets deployed, but their availability is awful and with so few weapons they’re pretty hamstrung.
HMG might gloss over that but others won’t.
I most say the Article I read in Air Force Monthly on the UK F35 was quite depressing ,what is HMG playing at 😴
Surely for £309k it would be worth having as a back up in benign conditions to save the weapon costs even with MoD logic?
I think the other reason they suggested is more likely; that the MoD doesn’t know if they are putting an angled landing deck in and don’t want to commit to the Bedford array on a parallel runway until they know which it’s going to be.
Also, if the MoD decided before April that SRVL is too dangerous, what’s the point of Vanquish with its presumed even higher approach speeds?
NavyLookout has one on that, tend not to put items out on the same day on stuff like that, he got there first so only fair.
Ahhh, fair one George, thanks for clarifying.
Evening George, any chance you can fix the replies again please ?
I agree – no point in posting something well covered elsewhere *if* there is nothing to add to it.
Look up Captain Daniel Parker on Google and see what you get or Natasha Jayne Nobes-Cooper
Fantastic news and so soon too, Which other country can boast this capability and World wide reach ?
It can’t be long untill we see a full load.
Extra Rum rations all round.
(don’t scrape the bottom of that barrel too hard lads, It’ll spring a leak)
24 F35s is a capability beyond anything we have deployed before. Op Telic 2003 was last time we deployed a greater number of fast jets in a single deployment. (32 Tornado GR4s) And that was pretty much nax effort.
Makes you wonder why we built them so big ?
So we can deploy even more in the years to come. And helicopters, drones. We had 17 Harriers on the Invincible class for one deployment. And it was a nightmare. The absolute max they could carry and it was very hard work. To get one jet out of the hangar you had to to move another 4 out of the way. Life will be easier on the QE class.
Nice answer, I always admire your positive attitude. 17 on an Invincible sounds lke an M25 Traffic Jam.
It was at times, a bit of a cluster f@@k. ha.
Or Op Overload, with 845 AND 846 and many Booties sleeping under the Cabs on Pusser’s Fighting Spiders! Oh how I miss the most aggressive camp-bed ever made,,,,,,,,,,,
Even if we only deploy 24 or 36 jets, having more room to manoeuver on a larger carrier means you can produce a higher rate of sorties with the same number than on a smaller carrier.
Worth noting the Nimitz class rarely deploys more than three F18 squadrons for around 36 aircraft.
Just because it can deploy more doesn’t mean it’s a good idea in peace time.
24 F35’s is more that the Israel airforce used to take out all of Irans air defences.
There is not much you can do with 36 F35’s vs 24.
Regarding Israel taking out Irans air-defense. Was the S400 absolutely useless or were Iran told by putler not to use the systems?
A friend of mine is adament Iran was told they cant use the S400 against Israel, which I think is mental considering they’re huge enemies.
Your friend can be as adament as he likes, but unless he provides any evidence to back his claims, then it’s no different to hearing something from a bloke down the pub who’s brother’s sister’s friend’s cousin told him.
Exactly what I said. I also said it made no sense in buying “world class” air defense systems if you are not allowed to use them against your enemies.
Pretty clear from Ukraine that S400 is useless.
Well let’s not buy any more then.
The availability on these things is insanely bad, at maybe 30% mission-capable (can perform at least one primary task). To have 24 permanently available, we’d need 80, doubling the number we have, excluding contingency. Following the deployment, it will take years to reach the point we can actually fight with 24 on deck, much less 36.
Given on top of that, the RN shares them with the RAF (or vice-versa)… maybe you’ll let us buy a few more?
The USMC has published available rate of 50% for F35B and it’s been as high as 70% for a year.
Typhoon is about 70% but it’s a very mature platform.
Yes. Our mission availability is low in comparison, but everyone’s full mission availability rates (ie capable of all missions) are attrocious. The rates plummet as the planes get older, even for the Americans to less than 10% availability at 5 years and older. (CBO report in June: cbo.gov/publication/61482) Ours will be even worse.
I reckon it’s all about the standard the different services can maintain the planes at. They can’t be raised back to as-new capability by anyone, and I think we all know the litany of reasons.
I’m not sure how you come up with that statement. Take 24 aircraft and put 12 towards an outer defence shield of the carrier gives 12 for a strike at enemy positions. With 36 aircraft that’s 24 for a strike, double the number of targets which could be hit.
The QE’s are supposed to last 50 years, so build big means more flexibility. It’s also comparatively cheap to build big, so it was never a huge loss going for size.
Yes. But apparently it’s taken raiding the OCU to achieve.
Hopefully as the rest of the first batch arrive that will cease as the force builds up.
(“scraping the barrel comment “!)
True mate. The Typhoon force also had to do the same for Libya 2011. And also deploy the Typhoon display pilot. Needs must mate.
Oh yes, I know. In war.
But peacetime it’s not ideal.
However, the whole point of CSG like this os to prove to enemies we can do it, by whatever means.
And we have.
Deploying 24 of anything these days is an achievement. Especially when we only have around 39 F35s in service. We never deployed 24 Harriers in one go post Falklands from a much larger pool of aircraft. In war or peacetime
RB,
Bravo Zulu to the RAF and RN for the successful deployment of 24 F-35Bs to HMS Prince of Wales. Believe the largest deployment aboard an USN vessel to date was 16 aboard USS Tripoli in a proof of concept demonstration of the “Lightning Carrier.” 👍🇬🇧
Good to see you back
They squeezed 20 on the Triploli at one point, although I don’t recall reports that they could operate with that number. That they tried adding more after testing with 18 suggested to me that 18 is the practical limit.
Carl Vinson may have surged to 16 F-35Cs in December 2024 when it received 6 additional planes from a second squadron, but I’ve read no confirmation of that total. It could even have been more. The next carrier to hold the “most 5th gen” record is likely to be a Nimitz class with two squadrons.
Ultimately all RAF/RN frames and pilots are deployable which is why the civilianisation of roles is pernicious.
Ultimately the numbers in uniform decline but the numbers of non deployables more or less make up for those numbers.
True. Pretty much anything second line is now civilian
Cuts by other means.
Hiya Mate- raiding the OCU? ssh, don’t ask don’t tell! 😁Still, this piece is a positive bit of news on a Friday .
It is mate.
The RAF did a very similar thing drawing in training units for the first thousand bomber raid in Germany in WW2
You can’t be right, clearly this is fake news, I have been told on numerous occasions that the UK is rubbish at everything.
How can we be deploying more jets or a significantly more capable level than ever before 😀
Hi Robert – hope you’re well. I’m impressed with this news, very good progress. I remain convinced the RAF /RN have long being lobbying the MOD for funding to accelerate F35 acquisition . To many cuts, to many pressing priorities -not enough capital.
I do hope the MOD/Government get on with it!
Hi mate. That’s very true. To many projects and not enough money. They are spending 9billon on upgrading service accommodation. Which is a huge investment. But this kind of money shouldn’t be required if more investment had been made on accommodation over the last 20 odd years. 9Bn would buy us 20 odd Typhoons or F35s. Or some additional escorts for the Navy. Governments never learn.
cheers Mate!
Well said Robert!
It’s taken a long time to reach this level of deployment, largely the fault of LM. I always had doubts about the carrier plan but have to admit that it’s starting to look rather impressive.
Along with IOC of Ajax, the worst times may be coming to an end.
Speeding up frigate construction should have priority over other as yet undefined programmes( MRSS,, T32, T83)
To the failure of LM? UK has been slow rolling the buy due to lack of funds. LM has moved those delivery spots to other buyers who actually have the money.
Spear 3 wasn’t integrated in 2018 due to the UK pulling out on.. saving money for the end of year.
The stories here blaming LM for everything are perilously wrong, like a cope cage on a T-72.
Agree. Its been the lack of money that’s caused the problems. Same with the lack of Technicians and pilots affecting availability and flying hours or slow infrastructure. Problems of our own doing. Not LM or the F35s own performance or reliability.
Sorry. The JSF was heralded as an affordable replacement for several legacy aircraft. It has been in development for 25 years, is hugely expensive to run and achieving only 50% single mission availability across the whole US fleet.
Your statement about Spear 3 integration is incorrect. First test flight, on a typhoon, only took place in 2024. Integration now depends on block4 software upgrade that has been delayed again.
Right. Spear 3 development started in 2006, first flight in 2023. Still hasn’t reached final production configuration as of 2025. totally Lockheed martin’s fault.
Who said it was? I suggest you read a recent article in the Register on the reasons for delayed integration.
My point was not about Spear 3 but rather the high sustainment cost and low availability of F 35, both limiting how many aircraft Britain can or should try to afford. I also said that what we now have is looking rather impressive.
low availability because of a lack of people. Not because the aircraft itself is particularly unreliable. Yes, the F35B is more maintenance heavy compared to the F35A. But no worse than the Harrier before it or the Tornado GR4. The USMC don’t seem to be having particularly big issues with their F35Bs.
It’s just coincidence there is a massive pile of weapons from multiple users waiting for integration then but it’s nothing to do with LM and everything to do with the MoD.
We will be potentially left with an unbalanced force and a lack of litoral strike capacity if we hold back on those vessels you noted.
Quickest win might well be to build 6 off T32 as a relatively cheap vessel concentrating on air defence with lots of cheaper missiles (CAMM) to defeat swarm attacks of cheaper drones-missiles but still with a decent number of higher spec missiles (Aster 30 or better) capable of defeating the so called ship killer hypersonic ballistic missiles.
They could work as a team with T45 until T83 come along.
Nice to see a loaded carrier, there are some weapon and soft ware issues with the F35 but 24 is a very power full force. Hope the time line to buy more is not dragged out too long. Some times dragging things out cost more a lot more over time. Wonder when the 12 F35 A’s will be ordered?
We won’t be seeing them until the 2030s.
True, likely replacing 12 other types ordered as we both know it was never an extra 12 but a diffirent 12.
“24 British F-35Bs from 809 Naval Air Squadron and 617 Squadron are now aboard the carrier”
Yet there are some who like to pretend that the UK has no aircraft to fly from its aircraft carriers.
Plus some from 207 Squadron OCU.
The quotation is from the above article, which gives the source for the information as being the Royal Navy.
There is a pretty reliable Google source of UK military kit numbers.and dates, ‘list of active UK military aircraft’ is a safe bet.
It says the 12 F-35As are to be procured by 2030 and the remaining.F-35Bs by 2033. So it looks like the procurement plan is:
– The 9 F-35Bs needed to get the total to 48
– Then the 12 F-35As, probably 2028-30
– Then the final batch of 15 F-35Bs, probably 2031-2033, to take the B.total to 62.
So slow, average just 4.5 aircraft a year. But of course the RAF also has to upgrade the 40 tranche 3 Typhoons over the same timescale, with each costing more than half a new Typhoon or F-35B, It means we are procuring the equivalent of 7 new aircraft a year over the.next 8 years. Slow stuff, but that’s all the Fast Jet Combat Air budget can stretch to. Had hoped that, with more defence money in the pipeline, production might be increased.
Alas, we look to have a 16-year legacy of cost-cutting, gapping and under-investment to repair first and now the RN clamouring for any number of new unmanned and no doubt very expensive platforms to munch a big chunk of any new money.
Cuts to the UK’s defence budget go back further than 16 years.
CSG25 is now in the Tyrthenian Sea west of Italy for the final few days of Ex. Falcon Strike 25. The CSG currently includes HMS Prince of Wales (R07), HNoMS Roald Amundsen (F311), HMS Dauntless (D33), HMS Richmond (F239), the Italian frigate ITS Luigi Rizzo (F595) and RFA Tideforce (A139).
After Exercise ends on Friday I expect that all but ITS Luigi Rizzo will be make a final port of call in the Western Med before heading homewards. It would be great if that was Gibraltar, but presumably that is politically unacceptable as it might offend Spain. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the F-35B’s also disembark and fly back to RAF Marham at the weekend.