On the 29th April HMS Queen Elizabeth sailed to conduct Operational Sea Training, this was followed by her first operational exercise. The ship returned to Portsmouth today and we spoke to senior officers about the experience and the future programme.
Apart from a brief logistic stop, the ship was at sea for 67 days, covering 12,000 nautical miles and conducted a total of 1,610 aircraft launch and recoveries. As a result of COVID-19, the programme was amended with her crew self-isolating and being tested before sailing. Despite some scepticism that it would be safe, the ship has remained COVID-free and the new protection measures have proved successful throughout the fleet.
The newly re-named Fleet Operational Sea Training (FOST) organisation embarked sea riders to ensure the ship is safe to operate and can effectively exercise damage control and fight fire and floods. The ship officially passed this ‘tier-1’ assessment on 17th June. The Carrier Strike Assurance Group (an arm of the FOST organisation) will carry out further certification during the next deployment, testing the carrier and her escorts ability to fight effectively together.
At the same time, four Lightning II Jets and all 8 pilots of 617 Squadron joined the ship at sea for further carrier qualifications after a training package in simulators at RAF Marham. 617 is building up strength and additional pilots will join shortly on completion of training with 207 Squadron. Half the pilots are now night-qualified on the carrier and the rest will qualify during the forthcoming GroupEx in the Autumn.
Commodore Steve Moorehouse, COMUCSG said the exercise, that ran over two and a half weeks in the North Sea, “achieved everything and more we wanted”. The exercise saw the CSG moving on from what has mostly been procedural work until now, to operational missions helping the commanders learn more about the complexity and challenges involved. Primarily focussing on testing the ship and jets flying on operational missions, this included combat air patrols (CAP) and strikes on simulated targets ashore. The CAP were put up against high-quality opposition in the form of Typhoon jets. A full programme also involved Air-Air refuelling F-35s from the ship by a Voyager tanker and the first interaction by the carrier with an RAF Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft. In total, 99 sorties and 130 vertical landings were flown by the fixed-wing aircraft over the exercise period.
The jets on deck in unusually balmy conditions in the North Sea, 9th June 2020. -
Royal Navy pilot, Cdr Mark Sparrow, is the first non-RAF Commanding Officer of 617 Squadron. -
Cdr James Blackmore, ‘Wings” – Commander Air Group, HMS Queen Elizabeth. Note the new UKCSG Air Wing patch. -
Lightning and Merlin. -
One of the three embarked Merlin Mk2s in the hangar. This image gives a good idea of the aircraft’s size. -
The Commodore inspects a Crash on Deck Exercise – simulating the rescue of a pilot from a damaged jet. -
FOST sea riders, their task complete, disembark from the carrier by Chinook dressed in fetching once-only survival suits worn in case of ditching.
Commander of the Air Group, Cdr James Blackmore noted that the F-35 had proved very reliable and no planned sorties were missed. No weapons or ordnance was carried by aircraft on this occasion, although the ship’s Highly Mechanised Weapons Handling System was tested in simulation mode. The forthcoming GroupEx will see live weapons embarked and the ‘kill-chain’ fully tested and analysed from end-to-end.
Three Anti-submarine Merlin Mk2s of 820 Squadron were also embarked at the start of the deployment and further work was done on underwater warfare aspects of carrier strike. HMS Kent spent 5 days in company with the carrier developing interoperability in anti-submarine warfare. Communications and water-space management with a Royal Navy submarine (probably HMS Talent) at distance from the carrier was rehearsed as well as the control of a simulated Tomahawk Land Attack (TLAM) missile launch. A Submarine Advisory Team (SAT) also joined the ship and was attached to the Commodore’s staff for the first time.
The core ship’s company of HMS Queen Elizabeth has now settled at 797 but for Crimson Ocean, embarked air group personnel and various specialists brought the total onboard up to around 1,100 people. In addition to aircrew, around 70 engineers and support staff from 617 Squadron were embarked. 617 is manned approximately 50/50 by RAF and RN personnel. HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Captian, Angus Essenigh said that “we don’t carry passengers” and everyone who joins the ship is expected to participate in cleaning and maintaining the ship as if they are part of the ship’s company. The RAF contingent reportedly enjoyed life at sea, morale was high and the ship gave the air group a warm welcome. The deployment experienced very calm a-typical North Sea conditions for almost the entire time.
A first solid stores replenishment at sea (RAS) with RFA Fort Victoria had been planned but was cancelled due to a change in the programme. This important serial will instead, happen in the Autumn.
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130 vertical landings on the ship were completed during the exercise. -
A joint RN/RAF team handle the aircraft on the flight deck. -
HMS Kent makes a farewell sail-past on completion of 5 days working on ASW tactics with the carrier. Kent is now participating on NATO exercise Dynamic Mongoose off Iceland. -
The carrier’s Operations Room. -
The Ship Control Centre where the propulsion and power generation machinery is monitored and controlled. -
Arriving in Portsmouth on 2 July and berthing at Victory Jetty.
In the next article, we will look at the plan to ready the ship for its major operational deployment in May 2021. First up will be the Autumn GroupEx which will see a 400% increase in the size of the air wing over Crimson Ocean, participation by the US Marine Corps and a larger group of escort vessels.
There are a lot of people supporting the great achievements, getting the carriers ready and able for full operational deployment. Brilliant work by all concerned.
Do we not have enough to man 617 squadron with just RAF personnel? They only have 8 pilots Total in 617 squadron and how many jets just 8?. What’s the deal? It will be getting a larger squadron Surely??
And it’s come so quick this build up and finally a deployed battle group in 10 month…Well done RN RAF.
i hate the drab light grey colour our carriers are and merlin helicopters are! It’s not even a nice grey. A slightly darker grey would look far better and won’t show up all the marks ect so badly. Surely the days are gone when you painted ships to camouflage them, with modern radars The colour surely can’t hide them that much can it?? And our typhoons look Crap In the same crap colour, I think the f35b colour would be much better for our typhoons, they would look so much better. Oh and an f35 in the typhoons light grey colour would also look great!! Hmm…. And imagine a black carrier I know that’s crazy but how cool would it be. I’d settle for a slightly darker grey though. Oh crap I said black carrier I’m racist and going to jail for unintentionaly suggesting black facing our carriers!!
“Between the world wars, Royal Navy ships were painted dark gray in the Home Fleet, light gray in the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, and white in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.
I think the reduced visual contrast long after radar came along was for the eyes looking from a submarine periscope. Maybe the infra red aspect is still considered for a lighter grey ?
The colour scheme called ‘Nelson Chequer’ was used by the sail RN with bands of black and yellow with black gunports
I never thought about Looking through a periscope, cheers
They’ve actually repainted HMS Victory with the colour scheme they believe was closer to the one she had at Trafalgar. https://www.nmrn.org.uk/news-events/nmrn-blog/hms-victory-be-re-painted-battle-trafalgar-colours-after-210-years
617 Sqn will have double if not triple the number of pilots to aircraft in the UK. When deployed Operationally they will usually have double the strength in pilot numbers. This is so the off-shift pilots get down time, but means the aircraft’s mission generation is doubled (depending on serviceability).
That’s great to hear.
You still have to account for the human eye.
I like black hulls, white upper works, and buff uptakes. 🙂
Yeah, looks great 👍
Have you ever seen some of the images people have made of the Type 45 in those colours? Looks really good.
No but I shall go to look for them. Thank you. 🙂
I can’t find it!
http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/GB_DDG_Type-45-Diamond_VRI.png
http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/GB-FF-Type22_B2_London-VRI-SB.png
http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/GB-FF-Type-23_Duke-Class_F239_Richmond-Victorian-1.png
They’d sure get some attention visiting allies if they where painted like that.
Would not a ‘cold sea blue’ be better?
Back then naval warfare was all about ‘line of battle’ as it was in the time of sale etc. and being able to see your ships was still seen as important.
Submarines have painted blue. This is HMS Torbay………
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4132/804/1600/bluetorbay.1.jpg
This is a military platform, please leave skin colour out of this.
I wasn’t being serious Rob.
Are you sure about the “400% increase” in aircraft for Autumn GroupEx air wing? Given this exercise had 4 F35 and 3 Merlin, total 7 aircraft, that means 35 aircraft next time? It seems like a big step up in numbers.
Sounds about right tbh. The USMC are likely bringing a squadron of 12 plus helicopters, call it maybe 16 aircraft. The other 19 UK aircraft will presumably be the 8 Lightnings (maybe more if we receive the next delivery in time) and flights of Merlin, Wildcat, and potentially RAF and Army types.
I’d suggest that it’ll be 4x the 7 cabs this time round (ie 28 or so). 8 Brit F35, 8 USMC F35, 6-8 Merlin and a handful of Wildcat and/or the odd Chinook.
The limiter will be Merlin serviceability, which is still shocking.
Not so long ago the baseline operating air-group was suggested to be 14 Merlins (9 ASW and 5 AEW) alongside 24 F35 (including 12 American at first). Could never see how they were going to deploy almost 50% of the entire HM2 fleet on anything like a regular basis!
The initial operational cruise next year is supposed to be 12 x British F35s and 12 x USMC, plus UK helos and USMC Ospreys.
I suspect they just mean 4 times the F-35B’s i.e. 16 of them.
I understood that 617 were embarking with all their aircraft for this exercise with a load of helicopters to get the flight deck crew used to dealing with large numbers of aircraft? Just 4 x F35s? Is the RAF taking the Mickley? Plus just 3 helos? How can they say the crew is up to speed and fully operational?? Simply put, they aren’t…..
Then straight in at the deep end with 30+ aircraft on ship!
I want to see Crowsnest Merlin at IOC on QE for the 05/21 deployment i.e. ahead of the currently quoted 09/21. Considering the Searchwater/Cerberus genesis of this radar capability, it is astounding that it has fallen so far behind schedule. Anyone, MOD or politician, could have been forgiven for assuming selection of this tried and tested route would not prove that problematic. Thales, it would appear, needs to double down on achieving the above Spring date to atone for the delays experienced.
Please share with us what your in depth analysis has determined to be the key factors in the delay.
It’s an updated system, Ron, and many military commentators considered it low risk, which is hardly surprising. So no in depth analysis on my part. However, if you have any knowledge that can contribute further enlightenment, that will be very gratefully received. I don’t at all mind being proved wrong.
Kind Regards
Just my speculation Gavin, but I suspect what Ron is getting at is that we don’t actually know what performance characteristics were contracted for and promised for Crowsnest. Many (most?) commenters seem to assume that its simply taking the old system and plonking it into a Merlin, it was never just that as a previous STRN article outlined and as a £269m contract suggests.
There are performance/capability improvements from the updated Searchwater radar and Cerberus Mission System, and failing to achieve these has led to delays or at least contributed to them. Did Thales over-promise and underestimate challenges, perhaps, but the delayed flight tests seem to confirm this as a cause.
Then there is the operation of the updated Searchwater 2000 in close location to the existing search and detection radar on the Merlin’s belly, that may be expected to operate at the same time and which may also be complicating things if so.
OK, Glass, balanced reply: I certainly wasn’t aware of your last point over possible radar conflict, though one may assume the contractors would have had an inkling, earlyish. Initial estimates for operation are always likely to be optimistic and ‘accepted’, but now further extending a project founded upon known basics to later 2021, at this stage, is wholly unacceptable to my mind.
Obviously the operational requirement, which had no doubt taken reasonable account of any equipment slippage, was for Spring next year. A deployment that could well prove more than a flag cruise; and in fact anticipate some facedown from parties less than pleased at the arrival of a UK CSG in waters they regard as their own – erroneously.
I’d still expect an embarrased Thales to want a presence of Crowsnest aboard next Summer, considering it’s intrinsic value to the carrier (notwithstanding any capacity of F35 on that front), even if IOC is achieved en route.
Regards
My understanding was the crowsnest could be operated by the mk4 as well mk2? Also considering the capability of the radar surely search water can be turned off?
So i’m unsure why radar conflict should delay at least an interim capability until they worked out a way of operating both together?
The issue is all down to cost cutting again and decisions made on a shoestring budget. We allegedly have Merlin’s in storage? If this is the case mission equipment should have been transferred to them from the sea kings (if they were truly knackered) & a slow incremental upgrade could have been carried out. Another option could have been leasing a different air frame.
There seems to be too much acceptance of gaping capabilities. Just because we didn’t have carriers doesn’t mean ships don’t need AEW. In fact by the sounds of it when airborne the capability of f35 will be able to give a stopgap measure. If they can keep caps going 24hrs whilst in high threat areas, although it will be an expensive way to generate this limited interim capability! But demonstrates carriers can cope better than say an ARG. To me the RN should have argued to integrate with Albion class or an RFA or possibly T45.
Add to this the capability the system would have added to ground troops and littorals it really should not have been gapped, especially as i cant imagine it was in the grand scheme of things that expensive?
We should have done this even if this meant the sea kings soldiering on, there must be a huge amount of spares etc. From the other retired units?
Also how bad can the new radar currently be? OK it may not meet the performance criteria, but I remember tornado F2s being fitted with the blue circle cement radar initially! So could we not push Thales to deliver something that works to some degree, make them lease a AW101 at their cost in order to continue testing? Surely something is better than nothing? These military suppliers are making huge profits yet we never seem to take them to task.
You are wrong, Crowsnest requires Merlin HM2. Didn’t bother reading past that.
You will need 3 F-35Bs in the air at same time pointing away from each at 120 degrees angle to give you a 360 degree situation awareness of the airspace.
Whilst it was true that Crowsnest would be a play and play system. It still needs the hardpoint mount to fit the arm to. The Mk4s, in theory could also be modified with the hardpoint.
From what little information is available. The problem does not lie in interference from the Mk2’s Blue Kestrel radar, but in software integration with the Cerberus system. Anyway, you wouldn’t be operating the Blue kestrel when transmitting with the Searchwater.
Usually bad form to arrive at a conclusion without any fact based evidence but whatever.
Would love to see a full load rather than all the explanations as to why She is so empty.
Be patient. Baby steps.
Ha, Baby Steps you say. So, These Ships were first proposed some 20 years ago and we might just see 24 F35’s lining up on deck in 2028 or there about’s. That’s nearly 30 years of taking Baby Steps. And a whole decade and more, of no capability whatsoever too. So glad we haven’t had any more Wars this last few years.
No wars? Where the eff have you been?
It was Sarcasm.
Admiralty Crabfat as I recall
use for the archer boats?https://www.google.com/search?q=iranian+missiles+on+fishing+boats&sxsrf=ALeKk02yQc1yCa6h5haADlBaZIrBfS6U9g:1600358742497&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjA8-_yyPDrAhXWTBUIHQ4zDyMQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1266&bih=571#imgrc=gfMQJCZdFu-gZM