The strike group is the largest and most powerful European-led maritime force in almost 20 years.
HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group are visiting Scotland to take part in a large scale military exercise before deploying to the Asia-Pacific region.
The Ministry of Defence say that HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Carrier Strike Group’s capabilities willbe tested during Exercise ‘Strike Warrior’, which will take place off the coast of Scotland in May.
You can read more about the Asia-Pacific deployment by clicking here.
The UK-led war-fighting exercise, including several other NATO navies, will be the final test for the Carrier Strike Group before it undertakes its maiden deployment.
The Ministry of Defence say that in addition to British and American F-35B jets, the deployment is expected to include two Type 45 Destroyers, two Type 23 Frigates, two Royal Fleet Auxiliary logistics vessels and a submarine in addition to an American destroyer and Dutch frigate. A British submarine will also be present.
Commodore Steve Moorhouse, Commander UK Carrier Strike Group, said:
“The new UK Carrier Strike Group is the embodiment of British maritime power, and sits at the heart of a modernised and emboldened Royal Navy. Protected by a ring of advanced destroyers, frigates, helicopters and submarines, and equipped with fifth generation fighters, HMS Queen Elizabeth is able to strike from the sea at a time and place of our choosing; and with our NATO allies at our side, we will be ready to fight and win in the most demanding circumstances. Carrier Strike offers Britain choice and flexibility on the global stage; it reassures our friends and allies and presents a powerful deterrent to would-be adversaries.”
That cover photo is still my favourite picture of her!
Agree great shot Lusty but check out the one on her visit to Gibraltar some years back heading out of port taken by a brave photographer or one with a long lense!!
-Coming here from your other comment-
Aye, I know the one you mean. That’s a great pic given the heritage of the rock!
Sent you the link but for some reason says “waiting for approval”😁
Will SNP members be able to see them?
No port calls mentioned so presumably not. Missed opportunity I would say….the fleet anchored in the Firth of Forth….might stiffen the sinews of those that are wavering!
That would be a sight. Bit of wavering starting I fancy.
The SNP will probably claim the visit is “an aggressive colonialist act to frighten the voters not to seek independence”… 🤷♂️
26 APRIL 2021
I wonder how this is going to play out?
Norcross of New Jersey, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC’s) tactical air and land forces subcommittee, said during a House hearing that providing 97 additional F-35s, more than was requested since FY 2015, has created a sustainment issue for parts.
Although the subcommittee has been supportive of the F-35 programme in the past, Norcross said financial resources are limited, and he would not support any request for additional aircraft given affordability concerns with the programme.
Garamendi of California, the HASC readiness subcommittee chairman, said neither to expect more F-35s, nor more funding for the F-35 programme.
“It seems that the … industry solution to many of these problems is to simply ask the taxpayers to throw money at the problem,” Garamendi said. “That will not happen.”
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/two-us-democrats-vow-to-oppose-additional-f-35-requests-to-those-in-budget
Wow Nigel slagging off the f-35 again. What a surprise.
Pretty much as the title of the piece and the article says probably.
Congress has been in the habit of increasing the number of F-35 ordered, beyond those submitted in budgets by the Pentagon, to the tune of 97 extra aircraft to date since FY2015. These politicians are indicating they won’t support similar increases going forward while operating costs in particular are where they are. It doesn’t mean the base line purchases in the program would be affected.
What concerned me most of all was the article below and in particular one sentence.
“A reckoning for the F-35 programme is coming, Garamendi says.”
With talk of a possible F36 replacement on the cards for their ageing F16 fleet and confirmation of the first flight of their next-gen aircraft, It really doesn’t sound promising for the F35 in my opinion.
“The development is certain to shock the defense community, which last saw the first flight of an experimental fighter during the battle for the Joint Strike Fighter contract 20 years ago.
With the Air Force’s future fighter program still in its infancy, the rollout and successful first flight of a demonstrator was not expected for years.
“We’ve already built and flown a full-scale flight demonstrator in the real world, and we broke records in doing it,” Will Roper told Defense News in an exclusive interview ahead of the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference. “We are ready to go and build the next-generation aircraft in a way that has never happened before.”
It makes you wonder what is actually happening behind closed doors?
The US Air Force has built and flown a mysterious full-scale prototype of its future fighter jet
https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2020/09/15/the-us-air-force-has-built-and-flown-a-mysterious-full-scale-prototype-of-its-future-fighter-jet/
Could US F-35 numbers be reduced from current commitments? Sure, for a number of reasons, including the very likely increase in use of unmanned combat platforms to complement manned aircraft. However, we should not lose sight of the fundamental advantages that the F-35 platform brings, either alone or in combination with 4/4.5 gen aircraft or unmanned platforms. Which is why the program is here to stay.
F-35 is currently a unique capability going well beyond just radar stealth and unlikely to be matched or exceeded until either an F-22 gen 6 replacement, Tempest or the French-German FCAS eventuate. I am not including either Russian or Chinese aircraft because they are lagging in a number of the disciplines necessary to match F-35 capability IMV. An F-36 designed for low purchase and operational cost would not replace F-35 capability.
That doesn’t mean that both US politicians and the heads of the armed forces shouldn’t be putting pressure on Lockheed to get F-35 program costs under control, which is what they appear to be doing.
I take your point, but what was written on the can will not be found inside the box for at least another seven years.
Just look at ALIS for example changed to ODIN to fix the problem and it’s still a nightmare that has now been delayed.
Block 4 currently pushed back until 2026 plus a host of other deficiencies still to be fixed. In 2020 only two were solved.
After 20 years of development and trillions being thrown at it, I think things are finally coming to a head. It was originally designed to fill a capability gap between the 4th and sixth-gen aircraft, America is already flying a prototype 6th gen today.
Time will tell of course and my guess is within the next two years, you can’t expect taxpayers to keep on funding it.
“Block 4 / Continuous Capability Development and Delivery (C2D2) Progress • The current development process used by the F-35 JPO and Lockheed Martin, that is supposed to provide new capabilities and updates in 6-month increments, is not working.
It is causing significant delays to planned schedules and results in poor software quality containing deficiencies.
• The current C2D2 process has not been able to keep pace with the scheduled additions of new increments of capability.
Software changes, intended to introduce new capabilities or fix deficiencies, often introduced stability problems and/ or adversely affected other functionality.
Due to these inefficiencies, along with a large amount of planned new capabilities, DOT&E considers the program’s current Revision 15 master schedule to be high risk.
• The JSF program continues to carry a large number of deficiencies, many of which were identified prior to the completion of System Development and Demonstration (SDD) in April 2018. As of October 2, 2020, the program had 871 open deficiencies, 10 of which were designated Category 1.
Although initial development in Block 4 has focused on addressing deficiencies while developing some new capabilities, the overall number of open deficiencies has not changed significantly since the completion of SDD due to ongoing discoveries of new problems.
• The program continues to plan for a greater dependence on modelling and simulation (M&S) in Block 4 than was used during SDD and, as such, must establish internal processes to aid in the development and enhancement of the associated M&S capabilities.
However, as of the writing of this report, very little change in the laboratories and simulation venues has occurred or is currently programmed.
• Testing the planned new Technical Refresh (TR)-3 avionics configuration will further strain the program’s limited test infrastructure (i.e., aircraft and labs). Software sustainment and capability modifications of both TR-3 and legacy TR-2-based aircraft will continue to be a concern, including the high cost and multiple hardware configurations of fielded aircraft, many of which will require updates and upgrades for years to come.
The use of the F-35 JSE will continue to be a critical part of an adequate evaluation of F-35 Block 4 combat capabilities.
As such, the F-35 JPO must continue work to align F-35 JSE VV&A with the C2D2 process to ensure that the JSE is able to be accredited for test and used for training with every 6-month release.
Currently, during detailed test planning for each 6-month drop of capability, there is little activity to align collection of open air flight test data for use in VV&A of Block 4 capabilities in the JSE.
• As proven during IOT&E, adequate evaluation of Block 4 capabilities will require the continued use of Open Air Battle Shaping (OABS) instrumentation and Radar Signal Emulators (RSE).
• OT aircraft will be needed to support both developmental and operational test requirements. Modifications to these aircraft must be funded, scheduled, and completed just after developmental test (DT) aircraft modifications to enable integrated DT/OT, DT assist, and relevant mission-level testing of future capabilities.
However, as of this report modifications to OT aircraft are not funded, nor on contract to be able to support DT, let alone accomplish required OT mission-level evaluation.”
Nigel I know you seem to be on a personal mission to demonstrate how useless F-35 is but I suggest you spare us the wall of text next time.
We know the program has issues, as pretty much every other military aircraft has had. The F-35 may appear worse, may actually be much worse, but it is also a hugely more complex and capable aircraft, even as it exists today. The USAF/USN/USMC are also likely to get capabilities including additional weapons support from Block 4 earlier than those for the UK.
I’ll take issue with a couple of your points though.
Apologies for the wall of text, I was simply pointing out part of the problem and where we can expect to be six years from now if all goes to plan.
In relation to taxpayers money, we paid for our F-35’s and are expected to share some of the burdens from increasing costs I believe? or, cut the numbers?
“The clear implication here is that while Block 4 has been a factor in the U.K. government’s budgeting around the F-35, that doesn’t mean that it plans to upgrade all 48 of the jets it expects to receive. Quin also declined to offer a figure for the total project cost of the upgrades, though Jennings noted that it has been reported to be as high as 22 million pounds – nearly $27.4 million at the rate of exchange at the time of writing – per aircraft in the past.”
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/34330/british-government-says-it-might-pass-on-27m-upgrade-for-some-of-its-f-35s
I am not ignoring the cost to UK taxpayers, or the delays. But your original point was questioning the effect the pronouncements of US politicians would have, and in that context its US taxpayers, or more relevantly the views of their congress representatives that matter with respect to the F-35 program.
OK 👌
Is the writing starting to appear on the wall?
22 April 2021
“US lawmakers slam F-35 programme for sustainment problems
“I’m [going to] take a deep breath and try to contain my anger at what is going on here,” said John Garamendi, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness. “The programme is over budget. It fails to deliver on promised capabilities.
And, its mission capability rates do not even begin to meet the service’s thresholds.”
Garamendi and Donald Norcross, chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, were especially incensed with P&W F135 engine problems that threaten to take 43% of the USA’s total F-35 fleet out of action by 2030.
Lawmakers reacted to a revelation, disclosed in the GAO report, that the F135 engine had repair problems that could ground 43% of the US F-35 fleet – or about 800 aircraft – by 2030. An engine repair backlog is already impacting the F-35, with 20 aircraft unable to fly at the end of 2020.
The stealth aircraft’s operating cost, estimated at $36,000 per flight hour, as well as delays and cost overruns for upgrade efforts, also drew fire.”
https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/us-lawmakers-slam-f-35-programme-for-sustainment-problems/143427.article
British Carrier Strike Group heading to Scotland next Month. Arriving on May 6th to monitor the Election?? 🙂
Just a thought – does anyone know if her 30mm canons have been fitted yet?
I did hear but cannot confirm that they are not getting them fitted. They will use phalanx in surface mode with the THIM for anti surface along with Martlett equipped Wildcats.
Hi Gunbuster – thank you for sharing. Omitting the 30mm cannons would seem short sighted – cost cutting? Can you confirm what THIM is? Thank you Gunbuster!