The UK Carrier Strike Group (CSG), led by HMS Prince of Wales, has taken part in Exercise Bersama Lima 2025 off the Malaysian coast as part of Operation Highmast, according to the Royal Navy.
The exercise, held in September under the leadership of the Malaysian Joint Force Headquarters, is the largest of the annual Combined Joint Force Training Exercises and Command Post Exercises delivered by the Five Powers Defence Arrangements (FPDA) nations of Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
An aerial image released by the Royal Navy showed HMS Prince of Wales at the centre of the multinational formation during a flypast of aircraft from FPDA members.
The carrier was accompanied by the Royal Australian Navy’s Anzac-class frigate HMAS Ballarat, the UK’s Type 23 frigate HMS Richmond, Royal Malaysian Navy ships KD Lekir and KD Sri Indera Sakti, and Republic of Singapore Navy vessels RSS Formidable and a Victory-class missile corvette.
The Royal Navy stated that the UK Carrier Strike Group is “a powerful, world-class international naval formation led by one of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, currently HMS Prince of Wales for CSG25, equipped with F-35B fighter jets. It includes warships, submarines, and aircraft and is deployed for power projection, maritime security, and joint exercises with allies worldwide.”
Exercise Bersama Lima 2025 builds on Exercise Bersama Shield, which took place in March, and is intended to incorporate lessons from earlier iterations while preparing conditions for follow-on activities in 2026. The Royal Navy highlighted that Bersama Lima 2025 is “a key activity within Operation Highmast, and the participation of the UK Carrier Strike Group marks a significant and novel contribution to the exercise.”
The FPDA series, which has been conducted for decades, is described by the Royal Navy as “important to maintaining the UK’s relationship with FPDA nations, and a vital element of the UK’s baseline activity in the Indo-Pacific region.”
She’s going to need a Full Service and MOT when she gets back.
Nah! I know a bloke who knows a bloke who can clock the mileage.
I was thinking the same thing… Does that mean we will be without carriers for a while???
Ie ,no carriers,no landing ships, no active subs and so on…..
Some countries need to watch Tom and Jerry show to learn what is going on in the world, please. Because, we are bleeding ourselves by spending hard earned money on war machines without realizing that this time is to live peacefully with each other in harmony. Use your resources in your own nation building. Wars are not helpful in this time anyway. This situation is right now is to get stronger inside our countries as America is doing right now. That is why, we should must like Trump, he is a genius.
Nice to see the FPDA nations in training with some serious fire power.
Power projection?
Four of the six escorts are armed with 112 anti air missiles between them and only one has an advanced AESA radar.
They each have different radars and missile systems with no Collaborative Engagement Capability (CEC) to allow hand off of targeting information between ships making coordination of defence against saturation attacks more difficult and for less efficient missile salvos (different ships potentially targeting the same threat).
A single PLAN Type 55 has 112 VLS cells and a Type 52 64 VLS cells. A small task force of 2 Type 52 and two Type 55 would muster 352 VLS cells. Collectively the entire PLAN has over 4,400 VLS cells.
But the PLAN has no one to play with.
True. The PLAN after exercise parties back in the bars on shore would be tame by comparison.
Oscar Zulu , thinking on the strong missile advantage that China has. We will never afford to better them on numbers. However if a ship is damaged that may block use of missiles so are we back to taking ships out of the battle?
As it currently stands the RN F35Bs have no credible air launched anti ship weapons against a PLAN adversary. Paveway IV has a maximum stand off range of 30 km with release at high altitude (less for a low altitude attack) and well within detection and launch ranges of PLAN anti air defences making the F35s very vulnerable. It would be crazy brave near suicidal attack.
The most credible weapons in this task group are NSM anti ship missiles on Richmond and Ballarat but there are just 16 missiles in total – hardly a saturation attack against a PLAN task force.
Yep a long range air launched antiship missile is very much needed asap.
Is your screen saver a PLAN ship. The object of the taskforce is not to go to war with the PLAN. If that was its purpose it would be a very different taskforce and have the whole, or part of NATO with it, how many missiles in the whole of NATO or even just the US?
Force projection is not a game of top trumps.
To answer your question the USN currently has approx 9,300 VLS cells in its surface fleet. With its global commitments it could muster about half in the Pacific theatre so the PLAN essentially has parity in any Pacific conflict.
Naval combat is actually now exactly like a game of top trumps. Magazine depth matters. I think it was General Patton who said that quantity has a quality all its own. No matter how technically advanced a ship is or how highly trained and skilled its crew once it goes Winchester and is out of missiles it’s just a floating target.
As for the ‘whole of NATO’ ever seeing action in the Pacific theatre you’re having a laugh. While the newfound interest in flag waving visits to the Pacific is fashionable, if a conflict goes global NATO will have its hands full in the North Atlantic. I don’t think anyone in Australia is expecting NATO to come our rescue. Asian countries like Indonesia, Japan, South Korea all have much larger armed forces than the UK or any single NATO country. Australia’s alliances with them are far more important militarily than NATO.
I’m not a PLAN fanboy – just a realist. The West made a costly and fateful mistake of dismissing the Japanese imperial forces before the outbreak of WWII. History may repeat itself unless we learn from it.
How many VLS cells do the Japanese, Taiwanese and South Korean navies have?
How many anti-ship missiles will Allied aircraft, submarines and ground forces be launching against the PLAN?
Naval combat is exactly not like a game of top trumps. A card game is.
Top trumps, hasn’t the Ukraine taught you anything? The massive might of the Russian army cannot even take its immediate neighbour and has spent a million men and thousands of tanks for not even 4 Oblasts. Top trumps? a huge ship like the Moskva going down to the bottom against a country with no navy. Drones for a few quid taking out massive expensive metal monsters. It’s not top trumps it’s top ideas and top strategy. How did Israel take out Hezbollah? Our carriers nor the US or Australia will ever go to war with the PLAN directly in a top trumps fight because both will lose. Our ability helps contain peer nations like China as it spreads its wings but that’s it, if there is a fight it’ll be Taiwan supported by other countries, similar to Ukraine, but China will win with economic might not with the PLAN, it has built too many ships for its strategic needs, ships that will bleed its finances in decades to come. Why does it need even more cruisers and destroyers? Does it expect to fight another Jutland! It has economic power, you can’t sanction them, they know that, so we have stalemate with China with the odd rattle of sword, our navy will only be used to counter but not fight Russia and China. The real benefit of our carriers is the ability to bring war to non peer or near peer nations, such as Argentina or Iran or some shithole that needs punishing. But direct conflict with China? Nope, let them build all their pointless fleets, we just need enough to counter and enough to smash non peers.
You may be right that the continual increase in Chinese fleet numbers may ultimately overtax their resources in future decades and be ‘pointless’. Imperial overreach has been the downfall of many empires from the Romans to the overstretch the US is now experiencing. Although it has sparked an arms race and a pivot to the Pacific by the US in response to the alarming increase in PLAN fleet numbers and their increasing blue water expeditionary abilities (including a task force circumnavigating Australia and regular transits across the Indian Ocean to their African bases) and carrier capabilities (this month launching their J35 stealth fighters and naval AWACs from the EMALS catapults on their latest carrier).
Interesting that you agree that a UK centric carrier group (with its current lack of long range strike weapons) isn’t able to confront the PLAN directly. Given the costs and trade offs of building two RN carriers (including the reduction in escort numbers) it would seem a waste if the QE carriers were in fact limited to a policing role to bring war to ‘some shithole’ non peer nations.
The Top Trumps notion you suggested is a limited analogy. The point I was making is that greater mass and magazine depth matters and the cost exchange ratio is critical – whether its million dollar missiles taking out billion dollar ships or a thousand dollar drone killing a million dollar MBT.
The use of drones the Ukraine war is ubiquitous on both sides and is as much about emerging remote and autonomous technology as it is about innovative tactics. The stalemate in Ukraine is due in a large part to the Ukrainians courage fighting for their homeland and a large dose of Russian incompetence.
Australia is taking the key lessons of the Ukraine on board, increasing long range land and maritime missile strike capabilities (HIMARS, PRsM, Tomahawk, NSM, JSM, LRASM) as well as autonomous land systems and low cost drones and powering ahead with air and sea based autonomous systems. The Ghost Bat loyal wingman is moving into LRIP with air-to-air weapons testing late in 2025 and IOC in 2026. $1.7 billion has been committed to build a fleet of 30+ long range Ghost Shark XLAUVs capable of strike and ISR missions. We are not only learning those lessons but are arguably ahead of the curve of countries like the UK.
“Battlestar Galactica leads a rag tag fleet to find home and to escape the Cylon Holocaust”
Well It’s close enough !
How many VLS cells do Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have in their surface fleets?
How many anti-ship missiles can be launched from Allied submarines?
How many anti-ship missiles will Allied aircraft launch in a war with China?
Naval combat is not exactly like a game of top trumps. A game of cards is.
Another 4 UK F-35B’s will briefly embark on POW (for a total of 22) when she arrives back in the Mediterranean next month. Carrier Strike will then be declared as being fully operational. Mmm