A new group of UK pilots are trained and ready to fly the UK’s cutting-edge F-35 fighter jet which is now cleared for take-off from HMS Queen Elizabeth following successful trials using the ski-ramp design featured on the UK flagship.

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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
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Jess
Jess
6 years ago

At last ! Soon they’ll be operational. Will HMS Prince of Wales also be having the F35C on board eventually?

Ben P
Ben P
6 years ago
Reply to  Jess

No. HMS PoW is VTOL as well. It will have the F35B.

Paul.P
Paul.P
6 years ago

Result! Great news.

Ian
Ian
6 years ago

We got lucky re carrier / harrier gap – but I’ll take the luck.

UK carrier strike will be awesome. QE, F-35, Merlin, T26, T45, Astute, Tide, Wildcat. We don’t have the depth we should but as a strike group it’s as good as any in the world.

Still bothered about lack of missile point defence though – only carrier in world without and they all have great AAW escort support.

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago
Reply to  Ian

I would not go that far Ian but indeed it will be more than most nations have in Carrier group capability.

Ian
Ian
6 years ago

Who is better and why Daniele?

Mike Saul
Mike Saul
6 years ago

According to The Times today the UK will procure and have delivered 48 F35B by 2026 ( for the hard at counting that’s 9 years away) at a total cost of around £9bn.

The cost includes infrastructure, upgrades, maintenance and weapons.

The government has declined to commit to further purchases beyond that date, but has an ambition to procure more in the future.

To me the £9bn sounds about right, however I am disappointed that tempo of orders and deliveries is slow.

Aspiration of 4 squadrons and an OCU equipped with F35 look a long way off.

Matt
Matt
6 years ago

I wonder if there’s a possibility of the carrier flight trials being brought forward? In understand currently this is set for Autumn next year but if the carrier gets IOC in the coming months and everything on the F35 side is ready – might be an opportunity…

Ben P
Ben P
6 years ago
Reply to  Matt

The F35 is cleared for ramp takeoff. It has not however completed its flight trials and has much more to go.

Ben P
Ben P
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben P

Also some info on HMS QE. “HMS Queen Elizabeth should sail for the second phase of her sea trials in October and will formally commission in December. She will sail for heavy weather trials in the North Atlantic in the first quarter of 2018. During this time she will also focus on rotary-wing certification and trials with embarked Wildcats, Merlin Mk2s, Merlin HC4s, Army Air Corps Apache and RAF Chinook” “HMS QE will be back alongside for a further planned “defect rectification and capability insertion” period in mid-2018. The main work will be adding equipment to support F-35 operations such… Read more »

Matt
Matt
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben P

Thanks! Where did you get info?

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago
Reply to  Ben P

Thanks for this.

eric c
eric c
6 years ago

The Royal Navy will soon have the most modern fighting fleet, of first rate ships (some of the very best of their types in the world) that will really make the politicians from a potential adversary state think twice before engaging in a shootout.

Ron5
Ron5
6 years ago

Should be a Navy pilot making the first landing not RAF.

JohnH
JohnH
6 years ago

Why?

Mr Bell
Mr Bell
6 years ago

The uk carrier strike will be awesome 2nd only to the US navy in capability. Although China is fast developing a nucleus of carrier capability. The UK has some problems though that need further clarification in the next SDSR hoe many active F35Bs is the uk going to operate at any time? ideally more than 90+ so both carriers could be used or one carrier loaded to the hilt and some residual F35Bs for RAF tasking. The QE carrier does need a point defence missile system and is noted as the only carrier in the world without one. seems to… Read more »

Daniele Mandelli
Daniele Mandelli
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr Bell

Agree with aid budget reduction. Politicians of all parties are not interested in defence so I highly doubt your shopping list will be fulfilled save threat if a major war.

Nick Bowman
Nick Bowman
6 years ago

Yes, the UK carrier strike capability will be impressive when fully ramped up. Once significant numbers of F35s are available, no country except the US will be able to deploy more capable task groups. Our ability to help in non-wartime situations should be considerably enhanced, too. Imagine what HMS Queen Elizabeth could do off the coast of Puerto Rico with a dozen Chinooks loaded to supplement the usual strike and force protection aircraft. Our Achilles heel is an unproven ability to survive an attack by the principal weapon of both of all of our most powerful potential adversaries – swarms… Read more »

Paul
Paul
6 years ago

Heres my thoughts on the F35,ive posted elsewhere so apologies if this sounds familiar-I think we could get more bang for our buck so to speak if we can stretch to getting a mixed fleet of F35’s.Heres my reasoning why,first id equip the 2 proposed FAA squadrons with the F35B as planned.This should enable enough capability for a decent Carrier strike group.Second id equip 617 squadron plus the proposed otherRAF squadron with the F35C rather than the F35A.The reason for this is like the F35A it has more range and payload than the ‘B’ its considerably cheaper,plus you get the… Read more »