With the arrival of F-35B stealth fighters, the United States’ tri-maritime support to the United Kingdom (UK) Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 21 is underway.
According to 1st Lt. Zachary Bodner, 3rd U.S. Marine Aircraft Wing writing here.
“Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth, DDG-68 USS The Sullivans, and U.S. Coast Guard engineers on exchange programs round out the United States support to the strike group, for their upcoming deployment. This will be the first time US F-35’s have deployed on another countries carrier.
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 and USS The Sullivans are humbled and proud to continue the special relationship with the United Kingdom through the deployment of Carrier Strike Group 21. Their interoperability with the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and additional international allies will preserve military advantage and reinforce rules-based international order. The United States and United Kingdom’s forward-deployed forces remain ready to respond to crises globally as a combined maritime force.”
Col. Simon Doran, US Senior National Representative (SNR) to the CSG, said:
“This deployment highlights the global reach of the U.S. and UK armed forces and their interoperability. The UK stands amongst our most stalwart and capable allies and this deployment enhances the deterrence and defense capabilities of the NATO Alliance.”
David Burkett, the commanding officer of USS The Sullivans, said:
“We are proud to represent the United States on this historic deployment reinforcing the longstanding and unbreakable alliance and defence relationship between the U.S. and U.K. The deployment is the culmination of a decades long cooperation effort to deepen U.S. and U.K. interoperability in an unprecedented way.”
The Brits and the Aussie’s are definitely America’s top tier allies that have always stood my us.
Well apart from a few Historical events where they opposed us and actively drew up plans to prepare for War with us (the Red Plan) , not to mention staying out of the two World Wars until the likely outcome became clearer for a few years. Oh and Suez….. 😀But Yes, We the UK have been a staunch Ally and it’s great to be able to crowd the decks of HMS Queen Elizabeth with more US F35B’s than we can.
I love your sense of humour bud.
😇
Don’t mention the box of matches and the Whitehouse Cap. 😉
Don’t forget invading Canada at the first opportunity.
On the one hand it’s great that the yanks are involved. Their support in places like the South China sea will be invaluable and likewise the support with the airwing and helping us resume carrier ops has been brilliant. On the other hand it’s a shame though as I’ve seen several us articles downplaying the UK achievement of this and either labelling it as an american led group of allies or some kind of triumph of American leadership of which it is neither. It’s a shame they feel the need to do this, being so strong in their own right… Read more »
Will you point out these articles were Americans are boasting abouting leading the UK carrier group? I dying to see the context you are talking about.
I bet the US pilots love taking off and landing on the big deck of QEC as opposed to those Gator Navy flattops where everything probably has to be done vertically.
They could replace some of the planned America Class (flat top) with some QECs for not much more money. Or, instead of building 10 Ford Class nuclear carriers (3 at sea; 1 surge) they ought to build 7 Ford Class & 4 QEC saving money and upping the numbers to 4 at sea; 1 surge. Others would know better about the exact numbers but you get my point.
If they reduced the order to the 4 current Ford class then the US navy would save the cost of 6 projected Ford class over the next 15-20 years equal to 6x $14 billion so $84 billion. For that price at $4.7 billion each they could afford circa 16 QE class carriers. Delivering much greater presence and actually aircraft numbers then currently available to Ford class. A few things are not included in this calculation. 1) price of Ford class likely to be reduced as programme continues 2) Fitting of EMALS and arrestor gear to QE class design is possible… Read more »
It would be nice If Appledore got the order for another 16 Bulbous Bows !!!😀
Yeep I think the Queen’s ships are still wet, I wonder if the USS The Sullivans will operate as wet or dry.
The performance of the jump-jets on the USN assault ships is obviously impeded a bit by the lack of a ‘ski jump’. I gather this was a deliberate design choice because the ramp would reduce flight deck space for helicopters. It leaves me pondering whether hydraulically adjustable ramps could be used to create multiple configuration options on the same ship.
I welcome co-operation between nations aboard the QE carriers. I hope more countries buy the F-35b so that the decks of the QE carriers can host visiting squadrons from all over the globe. With the carrier having two towers, I would also welcome seeing the visitor’s national flag flying from the flight control tower.