The Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers will be the largest surface warships ever constructed for the Royal Navy and will represent a significant increase in capability.

The vessels will be utilised by all three branches of the UK Armed Forces and will provide eight acres of sovereign territory. Both ships will be versatile enough to be used for operations ranging from high intensity conflict to providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief. The class will have increased survivability as a result of the separation and distribution of power generation machinery throughout each ship.

The class has been designed with twin islands, which separates the running of the ship from the flying operations resulting in greater visibility of flying operations. Surprisingly for their sheer scale, each ship will only have a total crew of 679, only increasing to the full complement of 1,600 when the air elements are embarked. Why are they so big? Wouldn’t several smaller carriers be more cost effective?

“The reason that we have arrived at what we have arrived at is because to do the initial strike package, that deep strike package, we have done really quite detailed calculations and we have come out with the figure of 36 joint strike fighters, and that is what has driven the size of it, and that is to be able to deliver the weight of effort that you need for these operations that we are planning in the future. That is the thing that has made us arrive at that size of deck and that size of ship, to enable that to happen.

I have talked with the Chief of Naval Operations in America. He is very keen for us to get these because he sees us slotting in with his carrier groups. For example, in Afghanistan last year they had to call on the French to bail them out with their carrier. He really wants us to have these, but he wants us to have same sort of clout as one of their carriers, which is this figure at 36. He would find that very useful, and really we would mix and match with that.”
— Admiral Sir Alan West, evidence to the Select Committee on Defence, 24 November 2004

What does a large carrier offer that a smaller one doesn’t? Operational experience shows that larger carriers have significant advantages. For example, the Invincible class typically hosted around 12 Sea Harriers and with that their decks were fairly crowded. Tabloids often like to quote 12 as the maximum number of F-35B’s the new Queen Elizabeth class will be able to carry, however this is nonsense.

The term now used for the carriers embarked squadrons is ‘Carrier Air Wing’ (CVW). ‘Tailored Air Group’ (TAG) has been used in the past for tailored rotary air groups and we understand the term has fallen out of use.

The carriers, in peacetime, will usually deploy with around 24 F-35B’s as a minimum and a number of various helicopters.

The vessels are capable of deploying a variety of aircraft in large numbers, up to a maximum in the upper fifties in surge conditions.

In addition to the joint force of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy F-35Bs and their pilots, the air wing is expected to be composed of a ‘Maritime Force Protection’ package of nine anti-submarine Merlin HM2 and four or five Merlin for airborne early warning; alternatively a ‘Littoral Manoeuvre’ package could include a mix of RAF Chinooks, Army Apaches, Merlin HC4 and Wildcat HM2.

The Crowsnest AEW&C aircraft will come from the embarked Mk2 Merlins.

We understand that the composition of the CVW is a balance between ship capacity and squadron availability. Squadrons assigned or ‘programmed’ to sail on deployment will mostly in the case of the aircraft carrier be unique to it, for example the airborne early warning helicopters that have no other purpose but to serve the carrier force.

In addition, we have also been told that we will shortly see decisions like this for the F-35B and maybe a utility helicopter (or tilt-rotor in future) type.
ship-size_2863051a

The two Queen Elizabeth class carriers can accommodate around twice as many aircraft as the three Invincible class.

This metric isn’t the primary advantage of a larger ship class as each F-35B is considerably larger than a Harrier and has much better performance. There’s very little reason not to build larger carriers, it was once estimated that steel accounted for only about 20 percent of the cost of the ship.

The smaller the carrier, the fewer aircraft it can support and the greater waste of resources it becomes when compared to larger carriers. The smaller the carrier, the more the vessels size restricts the performance of the aircraft onboard. The three Invincible class carriers, which the Queen Elizabeth class will replace, operated small and relatively low performance Sea Harriers. The larger F-35 that will operate from the new carriers is more effective than the Sea Harrier. It carries much more and it flies much faster and much farther. It’s also a more complicated aircraft, requiring more equipment and personnel. A carrier accommodating as many F-35Bs as the Invincible accommodated Sea Harriers would be far larger by necessity in order to effectively operate the modern, larger aircraft.

The ships former commanding officer, Captain Simon Petitt, rightfully pointed out that there is a lot of symbolism in modern warfare and that having a ship the size of HMS Queen Elizabeth, which will be the navy’s biggest ever, was significant. The sight of a heavily equipped 70,000 tonne carrier, which is almost 300 metres long, heading towards a potential enemy had a deterrent effect that is essential if the UK wants to project influence across the world Petitt claims.

“It is massively visible, you can range back in history and see the value of this. Everything from Nelson deterring Admiral Villeneuve from leaving Cadiz all the way to the big battleships of early 20th century, to what we are doing now.

The Americans use it all the time. We currently haven’t got this level of carrier capability. The bigger the capability the more influence you have to bear.”

So great is the impact of larger vessels as a deterrent, they’re often used as a geopolitical chess piece. American governments have, since the second world war, moved aircraft carriers around to demonstrate American resolve.

The particular benefits of using carriers in this way are that they operate on the high seas, where permission is not needed from other countries. Indeed, since modern US carriers are large and imposing they “show the flag” to great effect due to their sheer size alone. Equally, it is often argued that had the Royal Navy had two full sized carriers in 1982 it is more than possible that Argentina would not have attempted to take the Falklands in the first place.

Larger carriers don’t have to be packed to bursting point with aircraft to achieve their greatest effectiveness, even with fewer aircraft on board, a ship with a large flight deck can rearm and refuel aircraft much more quickly, this is typically why they allow for much higher sortie generation rates than smaller vessels.

The more crowded the flight deck, the slower the turn-around of each aircraft, the lower the sortie generation rate.

Size also offers greater storage capacity, larger vessels do not have to be resupplied as often, impacting both the effectiveness of the carrier and her vulnerability. Because a carrier is more vulnerable when being replenished, the vessel typically withdraws from station for that function. Much of the time lost is the time spent heading away from station and returning. The smaller the carrier, the more time lost and a bigger logistics chain required in support.

A larger ship is likely to survive damage that will sink or disable a smaller one. The smaller the proportion of a ship that gets damaged, the better the chance that the ship can survive the damage and keep on fighting. It takes sheer size to provide enough protection against all the weapons likely to be used against a carrier, from bombs to cruise missiles to torpedoes. This lesson comes from the second world war, where lessons learned from operations with the large converted battlecruisers in comparison with the smaller purpose-built aircraft carriers had taught both the Royal and US Navies that large carriers were more survivable than smaller ones due primarily to the large number of watertight compartments.

If a complement of aircraft that would typically be found on one large carrier is split among several smaller carriers, then each vessel needs its own escorts unless they operate together. This would require more resources to operate effectively. It might be argued that splitting up a carrier force would make it more difficult for an enemy to deal with all of it at once but the price paid in escorting ships would be high, making it unfeasible for most navies. Indeed, the most significant effect this would have would be requiring more smaller carriers to do the job of one large vessel, further increasing costs. Each of the smaller carriers in the group is less survivable, more wasteful and less effective than a single larger ship.

The Queen Elizabeth class mark a change from expressing carrier power in terms of number of aircraft carried, to the number of sortie’s that can be generated from the deck. The class are not the largest class of carrier in the world but they are most likely the smallest and least expensive carrier the Royal Navy could build which still have the advantages that large carriers offer.

Avatar photo
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
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

20 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
HF
HF
6 years ago

Regarding survivability I thought that to cut costs some of the protection for vital machinery and cabling had been removed – ignoring the lessons of the Falklands War ?

Pacman27
Pacman27
6 years ago
Reply to  HF

Hi HF

This is also my understanding – that this carrier has minimal armour plating and very little (if any CIW’s.

It’s a tragedy waiting to happen.

HF
HF
6 years ago
Reply to  Pacman27

‘It’s a tragedy waiting to happen’

The people who make these decisions, and ignore the lessons of previous wars, don’t reap the consequences.

Steve
Steve
6 years ago

My feeling is the whole strike rate is a made up arguement after the event to justify the decision. My guess is the thinking was down the route of 1. we need a carrier bigger than France 2. we will never get 2, so make it big to allow it to operate alone, something the old falkland era carriers could not. If they had gone for a small design and it had been cut to 1, they would have been stuffed 3. knowledge that the capability would be cut before it hit service, so better to have a big platform… Read more »

dadsarmy
dadsarmy
6 years ago

I’m a Scottish Independence supporter and there’s a lot of negatives in the Indy camp about “carriers without planes” and far worse. I just thought it was Indy supporters being, well, Indy supporters, but find that it’s common in the rUK as well, particualrly the tabloid media. I think they’re totally fit for purpose, and magnificent warships. And as I said before, better to get two such carriers on the budget, and wait a little for a full complement of aircraft, than build smaller cheaper and less effective carriers which would soon be obsolete or overcrowded. But – the UK… Read more »

dadsarmy
dadsarmy
6 years ago

Oh and yeah. Great to see a positive article about them.

Steve
Steve
6 years ago

It’s a bit biased to tell a story but my fear is it’s not far wrong in respect of carriers in a modern war against anyone with real defensive assets.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/americas-aircraft-carriers-might-be-obsolete-the-f-35-will-20890

Ok the carriers defences are unlikely to ever be tested, as anti insurgency warfare is likely to be the limit of their role and in the worst case they would be part of a much bigger multi-nation task group.

Nigel Trew
Nigel Trew
6 years ago

I feel number 11 Downing Street, the designers of this class of carrier and the Royal Navy come to that, have not bothered to look at the threat these vessels face due to the lack of missiles carried for self defense on the Queen Elizabeth Class ZERO she has to rely on under equipped type 45s with 48 Missiles. The new type 26 with the Sea Scepter (a system that can only engage target under Mach 2.3) with similar numbers and the as yet type 31, cheep Frigate. Has anyone noticed what the Russians are loading onto their submarines Cruisers… Read more »

Mr Bell
Mr Bell
6 years ago

The carriers are beautifull ships and a tribute to British engineering, design and manufacturing. Their large size was determined by their strike and sortie rate and the wish to have the ability to carry close to 50 aircraft. The QE class does have a great deal of survivability built into the design including adequate bulkheads, compartmentalisation and redundancy including good separation of power plants, engineering and air intakes for gas turbines. The QE has primary and secondary control centres and primary and secondary engines. In summary only a massive and sustained attack would knock the ship out or sink her.… Read more »

David Stephen
David Stephen
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr Bell

Is the anti torpedo system fitted to the Italian carrier? Or just FREMM? SAM and ASM will be present on the carriers escorts. Why does the carrier need them as well?

David Stephen
David Stephen
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr Bell

Like who? If we have 2 carriers 6 destroyers and 14 frigates not to mention dozens of F-35B and a large RFA and 7-8 SSNs then who is the reasonably equiped nation or opponent who would put us in real trouble? In terms of power projection we will be second to the US but no one else. The Chinese are a long way off yet and Russia will never get there. Only the French and other NATO allies even come close. We never have enough I agree but this glass half empty crap has to stop.

Steve
Steve
6 years ago
Reply to  David Stephen

Look at Iraq war and the US ship failed to shot down the missile and it had to fall to the British one in backup to cover them, or look at the Falklands and how much dmg some Exocet did. You need multiple rings of protection, because relying on only one just doesn’t work 100% of the time. The question is also not how many hulls we have, its how many of them can realistically be relied on to be available when/if needed, considering refits/damage/other duties etc. I think the planning i read was that you plan for 50% of… Read more »

David Stephen
David Stephen
6 years ago

The carriers have many survival features. Large amounts of plate armour has not been used in warship construction for decades. It has Phallax CIWS (2-3). It requires nothing else. Remember CVF will have at least a destroyer and a frigate with her on all deployments. If an attack can get past the Aster 30 & 15 on the desroyer and the CAMM on the frigate and the F-35Bs on CAP not to mention the multiple chaff and ecm decoys then what is it you expect the carrier to have to stop said attack? More CAMM? Not a great idea to… Read more »

Steve
Steve
6 years ago
Reply to  David Stephen

For me the layered defence is the key point. Either this is provided by hull numbers, which we don’t have or one of the layers needs to be the carrier itself. Something like the us missle based ciws would seem to be a reasonable compromise as a last ditched layer.

David Stephen
David Stephen
6 years ago

I can see where you are coming from but the lack of escorts whilst damaging is not as bad as is made out. Availability wise RN ships are deployed far mor often than most other nations. The RN believes that 6 destroyers allows 4 deployed and 8 frigates allows 6 deployed at any one time. Issues with type 45s propulsion aside. Personally I would go with 9 type 26 to be safe. The carrier will always have at least 1 or 2 escorts. If money where no object then yes throw on extra bells and whistles but there are definitely… Read more »

Mr Bell
Mr Bell
6 years ago

David you are not understanding the concept of layered defence really, sorry. i will just ask this question do US carriers pack SAMs and CIWS onto their CVNs? Yes they do, they have phalanx, RAM and 2x 8 cell sea sparrow. A final self defence layer to the carrier. Remember the US Navy has far more escort vessels of a very high calibre than our carriers will deploy with. A typical carrier battle group has 2x vincennes class Aegis cruisers and 3-4 arleigh burke class destroyers and 1-2 SSNs with more escorts and SSNs readily available if needed and yet… Read more »

David Stephen
David Stephen
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr Bell

Hmm. I understand the concept of layered defence perfectly well. It appears you do not understand the concept of escort ships which form part of the layered defence. I did not mention the Falklands. You said that we would come a croper against a reasonably equiped opponent which China and Russia are clearly not. Stop strawmanning. The cost would be £20 million for each carrier, really? Is that for the hardware or does it include the software mods to CVFs C&C systems? Does it include the rocketts? If so how many. How many extra crew needed from our non existant… Read more »

mikesaul
mikesaul
6 years ago

Why are they so large? I recall at the time when details were first released the answer was steel is cheap.

There wasn’t much cost difference between building a 50000t and a 70000t warship

Mr Bell
Mr Bell
6 years ago

David. Going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I think only time will tell whether 3x phalanxs and other assorted light guns are enough to protect the QE class carriers. I am hoping you are right and it is all going to be fine but I am worried it will not be. The Russians are proliferating their antiship missile forces and conventional and nuclear subs numbers are increasing once again. All explicitly designed to deny access to carrier battle groups and if needed engage and sink them. There should be no doubt the Russians are an emerging… Read more »

David Stephen
David Stephen
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr Bell

Mr Bell, sorry if the tone of that comment was a little off but I may have taken exception to the opening line of your last statement. I fully understand that everyone is going to see things slightly differently. Your points regarding the lack of additional defences is valid I just don’t think its as urgent as some others do. I think there are a few areas that need cash first, like a new ASM or MK41 on type 45. The truth is probably in the middle somewhere. If the carrier always has a destroyer and a frigate or two… Read more »