Royal Navy plays a leading role in largest NATO exercise for more than 35 years

All

First of all, a great set of photos / images here on Navy Lookout.

Secondly, the great news is that the RN actually managed to deploy a complete aircraft carrier – with a few aircraft, helicopters and Biggle’s on board – up into the Arctic regions; to train alongside our NATO allies.

As the Arctic Circle is “Russia’s Vulnerable Backyard”, we taxpayers must be asking for this type of exercise to be conducted “more visibly and more frequently please”

However, there are a very large number of points of detail shown in these photos, ones that all collectively suggest to me that “all is not well” within UK’s CSG/LSG.

There are many faults being shown here; all in glorious technicolour:

1. Firstly, the remarkably small number of F35B on board. As is quite-correctly noted just above: six years into service and still the carrier’s air-group is only “flying at half mast”.
2. That PoW sailed from Portsmouth without having its Phalanx guns fitted. Not very clever at anytime/anyplace/anywhere = let alone when there is a big war ongoing in Ukraine (two years and counting) and another war in the Red Sea (ship’s are sinking in both…..).
3. As correctly noted just above, why the RAF aircraft technicians had to be flown on board, rather than just walk onto the ship at Portsmouth, is “something of a mystery”. One rather suspects that this was either a very-serious case of the “computer says No” occurring somewhere in the RAF/RN personnel department OR that the personnel in 617 squadron have not been trained to use a sloping gangplank at high tide……(RAF Marham is, after all, very flat and boring…I hasten to add = the landscape and scenery; not the personnel themselves)
4. Next, the inside of the “PoW’s bomb preparation room” looks to be a right joke. Did we not used to prepare our own explosive bombs in very-highly-protected spaces called a “magazine”. Me thinks a very severe risk of an “own goal” here….
5. On the flight deck itself, lots and lots of F35B are stood outdoors, chained down, in very-exposed arctic weather conditions. This is whilst the ship’s main hanger (“downstairs”) is being used for gym, keep fit and (probably) Gwyneth Paltrow inspired yoga classes. Has somebody in Lockheed Martin’s hugely expensive F35 project team not thought to tell the RN/RAF that the surface cleanliness of these low observability airframes is vital. The key function of low observability (aka stealth) aircraft depends on them having spotlessly clean surfaces! This minimises the overall radar signature. (Hint. For the sheer importance of this seemingly innocuous detail: please remember the overdosing of the RAF Harriers, with WD40, during the Falklands War!). Accordingly, routinely keeping the F35B inside the PoW’s hanger should be a very simple operating practice, one to be implemented very quickly! However the RN seems to be addicted to using the same old-fashioned aviation maintenance techniques that have been in the FAA’s rulebook since before their Swordfish’s were flying…
6. Also, up on the flight deck: no sign whatsoever of any “Red Gear” protecting the F35’s nozzles and intakes from the foul Norwegian weather. So, whatever happened to that series of very expensive recommendations made by the gold braided RAF committee after one of their F35B’s joined the Mediterranean goldfish club a few years back?
7. Last by not least, the Bootnecks…….. Who organised this training exercise, the DSM (Drill Sergeant Major) from the Brigade of Guards??? The RMC FCF really should know better!!.

• They are show deploying LCVP’s in daylight on beaches
• Also lining up their amphibious vehicles, in many neat lines – all without any drivers in sight – on the quayside.
• If there is to be one lesson to be learnt from the war in Ukraine; it must be that a modern land battlefield is very very transparent.
• A single enemy drone flying anywhere near this particular RMC landing zone “somewhere in Norway” and spotting this ship and their vehicles would – very quickly – have brought down a hail of small attack drones, artillery shells and/or ballistic missiles. This RMC landing might have, at best, lasted about an hour (note: at night any drone’s visibility is dramatically reduced and also a UAV’s carrying useful infra-red camera(s) for effective night vision require much-larger drones: making the enemy’s nocturnal UAV’s easiest to spot and shoot down).

Points one to seven above are all, as my old boss used to say = “pretty basic stuff”.

One piece of good news. This Chinook has made a “quite long” delivery flight out to the carrier. This thus very strongly suggests to me that the Chinook very-quickly be adopted as “an RN Greyhound”- the carrier’s own on-board aviation delivery service. This well-proven bird has a much greater range and greater payload than the poxy little Quineq UAV’s (tried out on PoW last year).

So; some good news………..but, all in all, this great imagery shows “a very worrying” Grey Funnel Cruise Lines – aka peacetime – mentality.

A senior USN admiral spoke, from his carrier cruising out in the Red Sea, on Radio 4’s 1pm news yesterday lunchtime. He said “This is the most serious situation since World War 2” (his own words, nor mine). He then went on to explain that the Houthi part of the I3H alliance are using drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and USV’s.

Accordingly, things really do need to be sharped up, across all the RN’s CSG/LSG’s ship’s and operating departments. Far more emphasis is needed on generating effective warfighting capability – and less on the precise cutlery arrangements for the wardroom’s next dinner-dance when entertaining our Scandinavian allies.

If the CSG is to be properly prepared for war, we need to start by keel-hauling a few Dartmouth trained senior officers.

regards Peter (Irate Taxpayer)

The air-group generated for this exercise matches the carriers role in this exercise. The role defines the mix of fixed-wing and rotary aircraft that are carried. It’s also possible that after examining the results they may decide to tweak the ratio of fixed/rotary for this role in future exercises.

At the time HMS Invincible sailed for the Falkands
• the RN had not gapped fixed-wing carrier operations, the RN is having to regenerate this ability that was lost after the withdrawal of the Harriers
• the Falklands was wartime, things get accelerated in numerous ways under such conditions

You’re comparing apples and oranges. The all-round capabilities and weapons loadout of a F35 far exceeds that of a Harrier. So simply counting numbers isn’t a useful comparison.