HMS Prince of Wales arrived on the Clyde this morning to ‘bomb up’, loading ammunition and supplies so the vessel is able to deploy operationally.
The aircraft carrier left Portsmouth recently and his since hosted HM The King.
Local media report that the A814 between Whistlefield and Arrochar will be closed, as well as the C69 Glen Douglas road to limit public access.
The 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier is visiting Glenmallan in Scotland for a routine logistics visit. Since the jetty was upgraded, sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth has also previously visited the Northern Ammunition Jetty at Glenmallan near Faslane. According to a news release on the upgrade work:
“We awarded a £67m contract to VolkerStevin in 2019. Alongside them, we worked with managing agent Jacobs, which provided engineering and professional services, as well as designer Arch Henderson. In completing this major project, £20m was spent with local suppliers and small and medium enterprises in Scotland. The jetty was last upgraded in the 1970s and had reached the end of its economic life. The upgrade work has not only extended the life of the jetty by an estimated fifty years, but has also made the site accessible for the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
In fact, HMS Queen Elizabeth visited part way through the work, back in March 2021, in preparation for her first operational deployment. This was not originally planned but became necessary when the scale of the ship’s deployment increased, presenting the team with a challenge to make the jetty operational in time for her arrival. Everyone involved, from DIO, VolkerStevin, Jacobs and the various subcontractors worked closely together to enable HMS Queen Elizabeth to berth at the unfinished jetty, which she did successfully.”
In other news, the new Labour Government recently reconfirmed that the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group, led by HMS Prince of Wales, will still be deployed to the Indo-Pacific region. This announcement reaffirms plans laid out under the previous Conservative Government.
In a parliamentary question asked by James Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk, the status of the deployment was queried.
Luke Pollard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, confirmed that the Ministry plans to proceed with the deployment. “Yes, the Ministry of Defence plans to deploy HMS Prince of Wales to the Indo-Pacific in 2025,” Pollard stated.
HMS Prince of Wales will lead the UK Carrier Strike Group in a series of operations and exercises, including a port visit to Japan. The mission is designed to enhance defence relationships and demonstrate UK commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
This deployment follows the precedent set by HMS Queen Elizabeth, which led the 2021 Carrier Strike Group on a journey covering 55,000 nautical miles from the eastern Atlantic to Japan and back. During that deployment, the armed forces engaged diplomatically with over 40 nations, underscoring the importance of maintaining a global naval presence.
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It should definitely be going around the globe. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, past some islands in the pacific, Canada etc etc.
can it fit through the Panama Canal?
If not Canada could be missed on the pacific, round South America, falklands, other Atlantic islands, west coast Africa or Caribbean then home.
It attracts good global press, good press at home etc etc.
our carriers shouldn’t leave port without the escort group. these ships are vital for the nation and NATO. and should be given full protection at all time’s
In all the many years I have been visiting this site, I have yet to read a single sensible adult comment from you.
Not one.
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They are in home waters.
Why? We have never done so unless a threat area is declared…get real Admiral!
Ships 4 times the Size of the carrier pass through the Panama canal. So she will fit no problem.
Tonnage isn’t the only consideration for fitting through the canal. US carriers definitely don’t fit, due to numerous sponsons that project from the hull. I don’t know if the Queens can fit through the Panama Canal or not, the overhang of the flight deck and their own sponsons could pose issues to infrastructure in the locks.
The carriers beam is too big to fit through the Panama canal, they will go around the Horn (like US Navy Carriers do)
Given Trumps insane threats to Canada I’d have thought several port calls in Canada would be wise. Dumb & evil to suggest annexing a neighbouring country, even an ally!
How will this work without Fort Victoria providing solid stores?
Norwegians are sending one along to support the deployment
Roll mops instead of Snorkers then !!! Valhalla instead of Pussers !!!!
Does anyone have any indication how many jets and helos the PoW will take with her? Will it be a mix of US Marine and UK jets again?
24 UK F35’s has been the long term number mentioned.
We’ll see soon.
Our Defence Secretary is in the USA so who knows this may bring a few more F35s on the employment ?
I’d rather see some Italian and Japan ones.
Have to agree. I’d be amazed if there weren’t at least some cross decking down with the Japanese given their new Bs
I’m not sure If Japan will have them in time? Their first 6 are scheduled for delivery sometime this year and it takes time to get a squadron up and running. The Italians just did a deployment, I think they used what F-35Bs they had available for that one.
I doubt it.
Tump is pulling the rug from under everyones feet and the blanket that wraps them to leave them naked in the breeze.
TBH I do think that the have made a real mess of things in his eyes by letting our surface fleet get so very small.
We ? … I’m of the same opinion that we have made a real mess of things. It’s not like people have not expressed serious concerns for the past 60 odd years. Even in the early 80’s our concerns were ignored and even after the FIW, they were further ignored. Trump does have a point even though he doesn’t know who his(Their) friends are.
The alienation continues here…no perspective, scale…
Actually Andrew, completely setting aside bad politics I do suspect there are USMC F-35B squadrons available. The USN has had a tough time prioritizing money to maintain their LHDs very well. In the Pacific area, USS America (stationed in Japan) is deployed right now, Tripoli is getting ready to replace America as the forward deployed LHA in Japan soon. Makin Island and Boxer are in maintenance I think. That might leave Essex available for a WESTPAC MEU this summer. Anyway, the Marines have 4 squadrons of Bs on the West coast so far, and two in Japan. More squadrons than ships ready to deploy them on at the moment. It’s possible, but I haven’t heard anything about it yet.
I think we need to do this one with as little US support as possible – it’ll be good practice.
That would leave us particularly light, back in Marham.
All 24 won’t be on board all of the time.
They will be there for a few weeks and be on or off board doing other things with joint exercises etc.
I doubt 24 will be on board at sailing off. Probably hop via Akrotiri and then join.
Peel off in Japan and do some joint exercises and same round AUS.
They will probably be there in SCS.
Speculate is all any of us can do, so all we can do is wait and see. Personally I very much doubt anyUS F35’s
It depends if USMC see using F35B as a way of trying to avoiding Elon’s DOGEy axe?
Mind you given Elon’s prowess in messing things up, take Twitter for example as a value reduction exemplar it is par excellence.
I’ve gone from being a smug Tesla driver to feeling a bit embarrassed to own one. In spite of Tesla’s huge charging network, which makes trans continental a doddle, I am seriously thinking of moving companies cars away from Tesla in the next iteration assuming another manufacturer can, pleeeeeaaaaasssssseeee make an effort to sell supercharging kW [electricity] at prices matching Tesla.
Plenty of Tesla superchargers available to none Tesla owners these days although I’ve stopped using them since he went full …….
A total waste of money. Hypersonic missiles could take out any naval ship with no chance of interception.
How can we have commitments in the Indo-pacific when we cannot fulfil and kind of defensive posture in the vicinity of Europe? We are back in there days of Blairite hubris, thinking we are big players again
Not really Hubris. We have a lot of trade and its growing East of Suez. The Russians are our main threat but four or five gunboat type ships over 2000t permanently far from the Home base is not a huge force. Good for all sorts of work and training.
I don’t understand the need to keep closing the road near Finnart. I dived for years at the “A” frames just down the road when ships, including The Ark Royal, were there for loading or unloading. There was an increased police and military presence but the road remained open. The viz was almost always bad due to the boat traffic but we still dived. Now the nanny state closes roads at the drop of a hat.
Sorry, bit of a rant question again. Any news at all on any additional defensive armaments for these carriers prior or on the CSG? I’m surprised it hasn’t been raised in parliamentary questions yet. Are they going to test out any 30mm, Ancilia, Dragonfire or any DEW on those empty sponsons? Huge opportunity time and scenario wise and they might even need some of them!
Nobody is joining things up regarding survivability it seems to me. The carriers have lots of electric power for weapons fits and should be more than enough capable of looking after themselves in the Solent, but are they? What if a cargo ship comes at them at 16kn? Tell me your Lordships what the plan is.
It’s a bloody big white elephant of empty spaces at the moment. Hopefully stuff is going on behind the seems. Saw on Janes that the LRASM is being integrated for the F35Bs. Gettong some of those might stop a wayward cargo ship getting too close! Getting some of those in the interim might be useful while waiting for Spear 3 and FC/ASW which I’m not sure there’s an air launched version planned?
*apologies for the repetition.
Seriously embrassing that Fort Victoria isn’t in a condition to go with her (and no plans to get her into a seaworthy condition).
That’s leaving asside Cameron’s wonderful Strategic defence review when he sold Fort George.
If anyone ever tells me the Conservatives are the party of defence again I’ll laugh….