HMS Queen Elizabeth has launched F-35B jets into simulated combat as part of Exercise Cobra Warrior, a massive aerial exercise taking place over the North Sea.

The information comes via an official tweet from the UK Carrier Strike Group (@COMUKCSG) which noted that the cutting-edge F-35B jets have been actively involved in mock combat scenarios, including an Offensive Counter Air – Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (OCA-SEAD).

Exercise Cobra Warrior stands as one of the most important air drills in the UK’s military calendar, focusing on advanced tactical training and providing an opportunity for participating nations to bolster interoperability and combat skills in a controlled environment.

The F-35B’s role in the simulated OCA-SEAD missions is particularly noteworthy despite the current (but soon-to-be-resolved) lack of SEAD weaponry.

Offensive Counter Air missions aim to achieve air superiority by targeting enemy air defences, while Suppression of Enemy Air Defences focuses on neutralising, destroying, or temporarily degrading hostile air defences. The F-35Bs advanced stealth, sensors, and electronic warfare capabilities make it an essential asset for these types of operations.

The Royal Navy say that the aircraft carrier, crewed by up to 900 sailors, with her F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters and Merlin helicopters will lead a mixed group of warships from various nations as they head to the Norwegian Sea and waters of northern Europe.

British carrier sails to lead powerful strike group

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said:

“The UK leadership of this international strike group shows the strength of our commitment to working with Allies to promote security in Europe and demonstrate our resolve against any threat from potential adversaries.

With both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales deployed simultaneously, the Royal Navy sends a strong message that the UK’s capability for carrier operations is among the strongest in the world.”

The first phase of the deployment will see the carrier’s F35 fighter jets taking part in Exercise Cobra Warrior, the RAF’s largest bi-annual exercise, which will see aircraft from the Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, and the UK taking part in joint exercises.

The 18-day exercise will involve RAF Typhoon and F35 jets, A400M and C17 transport aircraft, and Voyager air tankers, developing interoperability alongside allied aircraft and practicing integration between fourth and fifth generation fighter aircraft across air, sea, and land.

Commodore James Blackmore, Commander of the Carrier Strike Group, said:

“It is with much eagerness that the UK Carrier Strike Group is now assembling for deployed operations – the first time the UK CSG will be under my command. This autumn’s deployment showcases the UK’s capability to operate at range from the UK and demonstrates our continued commitment to North Atlantic security.

The Carrier Strike Group is an agile and highly capable force and we are excited to be heading to the North Sea and North Atlantic along with our International Partner Nations to reinforce security across the region.”

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

77 COMMENTS

  1. What would the reaction be if Russia had a carrier with 8 stealth fighters sailing up the channel with a destroyer and frigate in tow? Just curious!

    • About the same as now we’d send a mighty OPV to escort it safely past us. Were pathetic, the Russians and the Chinese know it. We’ll just have to suck it up and hope.

  2. If we don’t have 50 F35B’s with laser beams on the carrier then we are basically s**t and it’s a waste of money.

    “we are all doomed”

    Cue the Russian bots to tell us we are no longer a super power blah blah blah 😀

    Interesting note from the USN this week, they expect to be operating more unmanned than manned platforms from their carriers with in a decade.

    Suddenly 12 manned F35B’s with a bunch of drones onboard looks like quite the capability.

      • I think the f35s are basically going to become only used for missions where the target hasn’t been decided or especially close to friendlies. The drones, for anti surface at least, will take over the grunt work

        • Not sure if I’m allowed to post this, but here goes.

          “David Holmes, managing director of BAE’s FalconWorks, said matching the Pentagon’s ambitious autonomous push would take a lot of teamwork and a rethinking of the supply chain.
          Announced last month, the Pentagon’s Replicator project is intended to counter China’s military mass with thousands of “attributable autonomous systems” produced in just two years, although US officials have not been forthcoming about which specific systems are to be acquired and in what numbers.

          The UK does not have any comparable program to Replicator, but Holmes stressed that the “route” to be able to develop something of that ambition would have to include a “different supply chain” because Britain’s industrial base is “not geared, in the main” to cope with large orders outside of contracts for “live munitions and kinetic effect delivery.”

          LINK

        • Today’s F-35As Not Worth Including In High-End War Games According To Air Force General

          It’s also worth noting that the USA will upgrade its F-16 fleet as mentioned in the article.

          Drones will also play an important role in any future conflict with a peer enemy.

          4 Mar 2022

          “After some years of stalling over a fleet modernization effort, the U.S. Air Force will now upgrade 608 of its youngest Lockheed Martin F-16s in a massive program that will cost an estimated $6.3 billion.”

      • It is when you are in a real fire fight, no matter how good your kit, if you only have limited numbers of it up against an enemy of superior numbers, you are going to take casualties…..

        • That right Paul I do tend to get in trouble with some posters time to time when I say numbers do matter ,take in account it’s not just battle loss maintains down time etc. 🇬🇧

      • No, capabilities aren’t just measured in numbers, but mass sure does help when push comes to shove.
        The vast majority of posters on this site bemoan the fact that we don’t have enough equipment/troops to do what is being asked. So, are numbers/mass important? Most of us believe that they are.

        • It is a balance between quality and quantity. The quantity needs improving in some pinch areas only. But capability and logistics triumph ultimately.

          • Totally agree that we need the correct balance, that capability and logistics are perhaps more important.
            Unfortunately I don’t think we are starting with the right quantity in several areas, so, ultimately all out of balance in lots of areas. I believe/hope that ultimately things will improve quantity wise perhaps in more than some pinch areas, but we aren’t half dragging said feet over it all.

          • Morning mate. I agree. And re reading my post, “some pinch areas” is actually quite a few areas! I was trying to say it is no good going all fantasy fleets like many here with lists of kit that is totally unrealistic for the people and budget available.
            So targeted increments.

            A few more P8. The 2 E7s.
            Maintaining the 200 odd Tanks we have rather than going BAOR and getting 500.
            RFA pay and conditions to get more crew so 2 perfectly good ships can re join the fleet.

            That sort of thing.

          • Morning mate, I knew what you meant, but did have a little chuckle to myself.
            On a more serious note, read yesterday that the RFA union have turned down the latest pay offer to its members(don’t know what it actually was), and unless resolved fairly soon, might be seeing them go on strike in October. Clearly not a very good position for us to be in, dont know how their pay compares to the Merchant fleet in general, although suspect that it isnt as good judging by the way things seem to be developing.

          • “quantity needs improving in some pinch areas only” – oh come on Danielle you yourself know and frequently posit on here that is an understatment.
            Even regards this capability the simple fact is we do not have enough planes.
            The procurement rate (for a number of issues) has been and will continue to be stinted at best – and the totals are somewhat of a token force for the foreseeable future-if indeed we ever get near the capacity we initially intended.
            Thats just for this our flagship (both in the navy and our forces in general) never mind The Army.
            I think theres a big difference between fantasy forces and reality but I for one think we are selling our forces short and recent times have shown this has been -and continues to be- a risky strategy (using the word very loosely)
            I know many on here will take great umbrage at the above – and provide many rationalisations to support the contrary but that is my considered view.

          • I know, which is why I requalified that comment to Deep that it is more than a few.
            However, I’m a realist.

        • But when you look at our potential enemies. What has the Russian Air Force achieved with its numbers? Nothing. Because it doesn’t have the training, the logistics, and the capability to even get close to air superiority over Ukraine. So the UK with NATO allies would dominate any potential adversary. The US on its own, would dominate any potential adversary. We do need more fast jets, but capability comes first. F35 allows us to take part on night 1 of a major conflict. If we had a larger fleet of only 4th gen aircraft, we wouldn’t be involved until defensive systems have been neutralised. The politicians wouldn’t risk the potential losses.

      • 1923? Royal navy is still largest in the world, RAF is only autonomous air force on Earth, British Empire is largest the world has ever seen. Not sure about anyone else but I think that counts as superpower

        • Dont think the UK was ever classed as a ‘superpower’, you hit the nail on the head it was the ‘Empire’ which was the global power before super powers existed.

          • I suppose that there was never a real competitor to the ‘Empire’ in it’s heyday, whereas ‘superpower’ implies 2 or 3 on the planet. I was arguing that it is cynical to describe Britain in the 1920s as not a major world power.

          • The term did not exist at the time but if the empire still existed today we would classify it as a super power for sure.

          • Never classed as a Superpower- Are you serious?
            Or are you merely being pedantic regards the actual phrase.

        • The British empire was a superpower but after the stock market crash and falling off the gold standard the economic component to superpower status was over. Personally I’d say the writing was on the wall with WW1 and the loss of Ireland just after. FYI, there can only ever be one superpower at any given period as the very name implies a hegemonic position of power in diplomacy, economic terms and military power. The USSR was never a superpower.

          • 1 the loss of Ireland hardly (if at) affected the UK.
            2 For all of my childhood, there were definitely two super powers, they fought a Cold War that lasted decades and wasn’t a forgone conclusion until the very end.
            3 Even with the costs of the first world war, there was still no global power to compete with the BE until the US in maybe 43, perhaps you would like to check out the seize of everybody’s navy and air force in 1939? ……. Armies don’t do global, hard to walk to India….

          • The loss of Ireland was more a symptom than a cause, once Britain became a true democracy with universal suffrage the days of the empire were numbered.

          • The loss of Ireland, in the home islands of the empire, struck a terrible blow to the empire. All around the world, the people who had believed the empire to be unchallengeable had seen the US overtake economically, the Germans challenge industrially and now we couldn’t even keep a grip politically just 50 miles from Great Britain. It was game on for every independence movement at that point.

          • Definitely two super powers are the norm.

            The British empire ended because the people of Britain voted in a land slide election in 1945 to end it. Indian independence was a keen component of Labours manifesto.

            People voted for it because it cost them a fortune to run with no return for the average citizen and the concept of Britain’s being an occupying power of a quarter of the globe was not something people who had given everything to defeating the Nazis could accept.

          • Two superpowers cannot exist at one time by definition. The USSR was a great power but failed in some respects to reach superpower status, chiefly in that the US occupied that position. The USSR was never economically, technologically or culturally influential enough simultaneously at any period in its lifespan. The relatively peaceful handover of superpower status from Britain to the US was a fluke of circumstance and almost evolutionary in that the reins were handed to a very similar culture. The next and probably all future changeovers will be jarring, unsettling and likely violent.

          • The USSR was always considered to be a superpower during the Cold War era. Of course everyone knew that it was inferior to the USA on economic terms.

    • With you on this Jim. Can we have twenty F35’s though plus the drones. We shouldn’t forget the need to get Crowsnest sorted, in fact helo’s gene🚁rally.

    • Lasers? Utter folly how much desperately needed money has been thrown in the quest for it? We’ve no ships because the money is being tossed away for vague ideas. Lasers? Littoral strike ships?/Ocean bed watching vessels? With the money chucked away on that sh**,we could have a extra T31.

    • Will happen when we receive Blk 4 and TR 3 upgrades. Currently running a few years late now, believe late 27/early 28 is the current forecast.

      • Not until you look back that you realise just how long integration is taking on this aircraft – beyond short range a/a & guided bombs, relatively basic modern weapons for such a sophisticated platform. Retrieved this from exactly two years back by the, now ‘late’, Ben Wallace:-
        “…….. told a parliamentary Defence Committee that he would be reluctant to buy further F-35s until an issue over pushing European weapons back in the integration queue was resolved.
        “It’s important that we continue the planned integration of Meteor on the F-35, I don’t want to be put to the back of the queue for that and it’s in all your interests that if you want me to carry on buying F-35 that we keep a lid on [maintenance] costs and that we are treated fairly integrating a European-made missile [on the jet],” he said.
        Rgs

        • Yes, it’s certainly a trying gestation period so to speak.
          I imagine that both the RN and MOD are equally frustrated with LM and the painfully slow progress that is all things F35. BW was absolutely correct with what he was saying about the whole issue, alas he has departed, and it remains to be seen how hard GS is willing to push this issue before the next election?

          • We’re not replacing euro-missile technology that’s currently ahead of the US – or waiting whilst they catch up – with something more to their manufacturers’ liking.
            The States must know they have to view this strategically, since her Allies worldwide can bring a great deal of technological capabilily to issues facing all of us. She’s already concerned with supply over sophisticated weapons in an era where Russia is principally the wake-up call not the greatest threat.
            On your last comment, I admire your diplomacy! Shapps statement was clearly written by someone with a basic grasp of what the job is – a question of ‘just read this’.
            Rgs

          • The more cynical might suggest that the US has slowed things down just so that their defence contractors can catch up – thinking Meteor v AIM 120 here amongst a few others?
            It would appear that the biggest issue with TR3/Blk VI is the extra cooling required for the kit. Hence the issue with the engine upgrade, or lack of it. Former Def Sec R. Gates decision to scrape any viable competition and hand the development to a single supplier (P&W) isn’t looking quite so clever now! This is only going to further increase costs for the F35.

          • See from ancient history that Storm Shadow was an early candidate, but we settled on the future SPEAR 5……..
            Right now I thinking, “Good luck with that, then”, since we’ve only been able to put the former on the, er, Sukhoi 24 in short order. I know, I really shouldn’t……😉

          • Hence why RAF/MOD don’t want another plane where UK don’t control the software.

            Why, in some ways, UK sovereign integration of Typhoon is ahead of F35B and will be way ahead one RADAR2 and other upgrades are done.

            Problem is F35 is the only 5th gen carrier solution so you are stuck with one or other flavour of it!

          • The difference is though. Typhoon has bee in service 20 years. It had been in service 18 years before project Centurion was launched to integrate StormShadow and Brimstone. Weapons integration has hardly been speedy.

    • Once Block 4 is finished (currently 2029) and after IOC/FOC.
      Additional power and cooling from the engines will also be required.
      So, at a guess, sometime around 2033ish

      “Block 4 is an ambitious, long-planned, and highly-anticipated upgrade to the F-35, the basic design of which was set in the early 2000s. It includes the new AN/APG-85 radar, electronic warfare systems, other sensors such as an upgraded electro-optical targeting system, communications and navigation upgrades, new weapons, new antennas, and a raft of classified capabilities.

      But costs have steadily increased in recent years. Starting in 2018, it was expected the program would cost $10.6 billion in then-year dollars. The GAO recorded a $300 million increase in 2019, then a $3.5 billion jump in estimate in 2020. By June 2021, the estimate had grown another $700 million, and just two months later, it had surged again, to $16.5 billion. The figures were not adjusted for inflation.”

      LINK

  4. The F35 has electronic attack capability with its APG-81 radar. The SEAD capability of the F35 is a match for platforms designed specifically for the job. It’s stealth allows it to close in on radars and integrated air defence networks to take them out or pass the information to 4th gen platforms that can use weapons- at greater stand off ranges. The AN/ASQ – 239 EW system hoovers up vast amounts of data for enemy radars then fuses the data for the pilot to make decisions that will control the battle space.

  7. Interesting discussion on the Superpower lable, lads. From my memory the RN was still the world’s 2nd largest Navy well into the 1960’s and despite the underlying demise of Unions and productivity, purely in bulk terms the UK economy and presence overseas was still in the top 2 or 3. In 1960’s South Africa,the British economic presence was huge. I worked in the Standard Bank and some of my co-workers derided Britain until I pointed out that the two biggest banks including the Standard and Barclays DCO(Dominion,Colonial and Overseas😂) were both British owned! When you consider that the UK has less than 1% of the world’s population and a tiny % of the world’s area, it still remains in the top ten of all the statistical tables that count!
    As to the term Superpower, well it consisted of the USA and USSR, but in broad terms there is no doubt that the UK of GB and NI and her Empire was the superpower of her era!!

      • I know Jacko- I will try to reform and be a better person😃
        ps In the 60’s, the British Merchant fleet was still the world’s largest. We had a Merchant Navy Officers Memorial Club in Durban that flew the Red Ensign and was packed with revellers on a Friday night including my parents!!

    • I mean that’s because every navy that wasn’t the RN or USN has effectively been promoted to a submarine force very recently.

      Also as a % of sea Area the UK might be smol but it has the 5th largest EEZ in the world (After France 🇫🇷, the US 🇺🇲 , Russia 🇷🇺 and Australia 🇦🇺)

      • Thanks for that Dern. I would think the UK EEZ might include her overseas territories in the Atlantic plus BIOT in the Indian ocean and Pitcairn in the Pacific as well as the considerable EEZ around the UK itself

  8. Grants Shapps spewing out the “promote security” “strength of our commitment” blah blah blah, that straw man nob jockey doesn’t know, and doesn’t care about the military! It’s just another high profile cabinet job he is keeping the seat warm in until the David Lammys, Diane Abbots and the Macron munching Starmers take over the shit show. Then we will see even more reductions and destruction of our capabilities! For many years it’s never been we vote for who’s best, it’s voting for the least shit! Stand by stand by, we think it’s bad now with these clown Tories, methinks it will only get worse.

      • There’s an article on the Sky news app reporting that (probably since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), there’s been an increase in support amongst the general public for both the nuclear deterrent and increased defence spending. How that will be viewed by the politicians however is another thing altogether.

      • Can’t see thin going well under a Labour government Daniele. Then again, with evets in the Ukraine, perhaps they will take a more pragmatic approach. I’m guided by past action as the best predictor for the future. Neither Labour nor Tories can claim the high ground.

        I still patently await a detailed defence manifesto policy from the Labour opposition.

        if you have some time to kill on the weekend, take a look at this Mirage F1 pilot interview, worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6QHi-d34cw. probably skip the first 30 min to get to the action.

      • Hi mate, sad as it may seem we are looking at bad times for the military and defence in general, regardless of what’s happening in the world 👍

  10. Spear3 SEAD/ EW missile system is probably close to reaching IOC- the fact that MDA have gone live with the system and announced it to the world means it probably already works in prototype form. So a SEAD suppression of enemy air defences, radars and EW and ECCM functionality is probably close.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here