UK F-35 jets will embark aboard HMS Prince of Wales for Exercise Strike Warrior which will run from 14th – 27th October off the coast of Scotland and in the North Sea.
Strike Warrior will also see F-35s of the nascent 809 Naval Air Squadron go to sea for the first time operating from the carrier with 617 aircraft. The exercise will be a key building block in preparation for the global Carrier Strike Group deployment in 2025.
There will be participation by Canadian, German, Norwegian and French maritime patrol aircraft in addition to RAF P-8A Posiedons. Swedish Grippens and UK-based USAF aircraft will also be involved in this complex air and sea exercise, with participants flying from RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Coningsby, RAF Waddington, RAF Lakenheath, RAF Brize Norton, Stornoway, Teesside and Prestwick airports.
RN Wildcats and Merlin helicopters are due to participate. Following the fatal accident when a Merlin Mk 4 ditched off the Dorset coast on 4th September, Merlin flying activity has been “paused” pending the results of initial investigations. It must be hoped that they will be cleared to fly again shortly otherwise this will complicate carrier flying activity as Merlins provide search and rescue cover for the carrier-based jets.
Last week Wing Commander Stew Campbell handed over command of 617 Squadron to Lieutenant Colonel Mike Carty. The ‘Dambusters’ 617 squadron is the RAF-badged frontline F-35 unit based at Marham and this is the first time a Royal Marine has commanded a fast jet squadron.
Lt Col Carty has also worked as an instructor on the Hawk T2 at RAF Valley and served as a Staff Officer in the F-35 programme at the Air & Space Warfare Centre and then with the Combat Air Force HQ, based at RAF Marham. After completing his conversion to the F-35B Lightning with 207 Squadron, he now assumes leadership of 617 Squadron as they prepare to embark on the carrier.
It should be noted that the F-35s of the UK Lightning Force are operated jointly with the RAF, both 617 and 809 Squadron have a mix of RN and RAF personnel.
How many f-35’s will be embarking? Is that 2 full sized squadrons?
Most likely 16.
I recon that’s about right, just enough to show the UK are heading in the right direction but it will still strech 207 with its F35 training program. Hopefully more delivery’s will be coming soon?
Budget 30 October. SDSR sometime next year. Fingers crossed.
Dream on.
The earliest we’ll see 2 squadrons and 24 F35’s will be for the CSG deployment next year.
For a short exercise with NATO partners it’ll be around 8 jets again.
Unfortunately I doubt that there will be 24 airframes available for the the CSG next year without really affecting the F35 conversion and training program? Hope I’m wrong?
CSG25 has been.planned for sometime and we should have enough airdrames to enable 24 to embark
The Tranche 1 order of 48 completed next year so 24 shouldn’t impact the training sqns. We never had more than 38 Sea Harriers and we ended up deploring 30 of them down south in 1982!
You’re right the T1 order SHOULD be complete by the end of next year but with all the issues and delays and only around 30 in the UK at the moment and any new aircraft arriving will under go a lot of testing before being excepted into the fleet for operations things are still limited and will take time to catch up unfortunately. Deploying aircraft in war time is completely different from deploying in peace time. The RAF chinook pilot that delivered the broken gearbox coupling to HMS Invisible had never landed on a ship before but needs must when war comes along but this would never happen in peace time.
The current production standard from Lockheed is TR3 which has been unflyable for quite some time and are stored ( roughly a 100 or so)
I dont know how many are UK but perhaps the normal ‘ reserve’ airframes can be put into every day use while the UK TR3 are stored- thats if too many parts arent removed ?
But thats another problem as the very oldest planes , maybe 8+, dont have the hardware/software to be compatible with the newer planes.
The idea that there will be a fleet of 47 next year is laughable, 30 all up ‘active’ including those stationed in US is more likely
I think we may see 24 embarked for a small part of the CSG so they can tick that box and demonstrate the capability, before it goes back down to around 10-12 (plus maybe some USMC joining) for the rest of the deployment.
As long as the government doesn’t fund the military properly the most important thing the Navy can do in the run up to a possible war is send the right signals. 10-12 fighters is not that. (Look everyone, that’s four more than we could do in 2021. Aren’t we growing quickly!) Almost better the carrier doesn’t go to the SCS at all.
No what we need to do is ignore all of the investment we have made in a world beating capability and regenerating proper carrier aviation and replace it with feasibility studies into nonexistent UAVs launched by EMALs which will of course cost nothing to instal. That would be by far the best thing to do…..
We need more aircraft but more importantly – a massive ‘shake up’ within the forces. Put the Rainbows down and start playing with the Thunder and Lightning.
😴😴😴
Well said 👏
Any actual recommendations or are you just shaking your fist at the clouds?
Has there been any official announcement on which (or whether any) escorts will accompany her next month? Dauntless has been conducting multiple work up and gunnery exercises in the recent month so that could indicate she’s preparing for a deployment soon, it would be good practice to send her out with at least 1 DDG.
I’d hope they’ll be an improvement over what accompanied her during Stead Fast Defender, two completely unarmed RFA Tides and HMS Portland was simply embarrassing and didn’t help with the image of the RN against the damning news reports that began flooding out at the time about the true status of the fleet.
The MoD will not allow the carrier and potentially 16 F35s + rotary aircraft to sail without an escort. Too many assets at risk.
Hope you guys over in the RN and RAF enjoy those F35s. 🇺🇲💪🇬🇧
Well we would prefer it Lockheed Martin put a bit more effort into UK weapons integration. Israel has been allowed to add custom EW systems yet we haven’t got Meteor and other critical missiles integrated.
Until this happens our F35 capability and F35 enjoyment is somewhat limited.
We really do need to do as much as is possible to upgrade our armed forces, I hate to even think this but history seems to be repeating itself!!
Michael P,
Totally agree……
….and, even as we speak, the threat is quite-obviously getting more serious
Somebody inside Millbank has just woked (note 1) up to the “probablity” that several key warehouses and factories across Europe – ones which were supporting the Ukrainian’s defence industries – have recently burnt down (note 2).
Thus the Daily Torygraph reports today that the Civil Nuclear Constabulary – the UK’s largely unknow civilian armed police force – will “soon” be taking over armed security at the UK’s major gas terminals.
When any UK government start protecting our critical national infrastructure with armed guards = one knows that things are getting deadly serious in that big wide world out beyond the English Channel….
Must stop typing now = I’m off to sign up for our village’s newly established Home Guard Unit
Regards Peter (Irate Taxpayer)
Note 1.Not a typo……. very deliberate
Note 2. Thus Police in many European countries are now looking for a***** (note 3) who trained in the same Russian borstal as the two goons who used Novichock in Salisbury High Street back in 2018. Once caught, they will be easily identified by having “GRU” or “Z tattoed on their backsides.
Note 3. Please complete this word as arsonists or ar***holes ….as one sees fit…….
PS I’m hoping to join the WMD platoon.
The CNC even have their own ‘navy’ One of 3 ships
As long as they get to something approximating to a busy deck, it doesn’t matter if it’s 16, 20 or 24, plus the rotorheads for this one.
The thing they really have to get used to is operating the deck in a way similar to what it was designed for – which hasn’t really happened yet. The only times they’ve had anything like a busy deck was CSG21 and its precursor work-up exercises.
As a result, they’re still trying this two airfield approach with rotorheads aft of the after island and fixed-wing forward. Which – while easy to deconflict the RW – is not conducive to the sortie rates they were designed for.
Which is a bit like running an Invincible up front with Ocean welded aft…daft.
I can see why it is a thing until a lot of experience is gained. However, with the level of at sea deployments this will take forever to achieve.
The is the problem with letting skills fade for a decade.
Ark Royal and Illustrious decommissioned in 2010 and 2014 respectively
Now who let those skills fade just they did with the new frigate builds ?
I’d imagine – among others – it was the person who repeatedly delayed ordering the carriers, which – when I was working on the ST(S) – were originally to have had an ISD of 2012. He was also the bloke who – having eventually agreed to the contract – then delayed it by another couple of years, while still paying for the workforce. Gordon someone I think his name was…….
Thats been debunked here previously
“Complex funding and industry arguments held up progress considerably but Queen Elizabeth class ships were finally ordered on 25 July 2007 (Although there were further politically-inspired delays after this point).
https://www.navylookout.com/development-of-the-queen-elizabeth-class-aircraft-carrier-a-design-history/
The ISD was set way back in the SDR of 97-98. It was a paper target as there was no design yet and even the assessment phase of what it would look like hadnt started. As we all know delays are endemic from the designers and construction side
The 2nd assessment phase contract was let Jul 2001 and yet build contract was only 6 years later – for a 65,000 ton warship of which there was NO recent design or build experience using the current fully digital methods.
It was only 18 months after the 3rd phase contract for full detailed design was let to the build contract awarded. [Dec 2005- Jul 2007]
It was delayed again by the Tory-City government costing maybe £150 MILL when the absurd catapult CANARD was raised.
Sadly, though well informed, NL does not constitute debunking. Those who were involved in the four years between approx 2002 and 2006 would testify that there was a political refusal to commit to the order.
Current fully digital methods… Ho ho and again ho.
Place a contract before most of the detail design was complete….
Theres a name for that , its called concurrency – which became a nightmare for the US Navy in that exact time period.
So you were trying to get the QEC into the same nightmare which BAE created for the Astute class due to the Tory governments contract signed far too early 2 months before the general election
Happened again later for the Army, even the recruitment contract was let before Capita even had any real idea of what was involved.
There are only 30 F35 In uk Athens the moment 3 in the US and 1 lost