After the impressive entry into Portsmouth on 16th August, HMS Queen Elizabeth is now safely tied up alongside Princess Royal Jetty. She may look close to being the complete article, but there is a lot of work to be done before she can be added to the Royal Navy’s order of battle.
Despite being more symbolic than of military significance at this stage, QE’s entry into Portsmouth was a major public relations success for the RN. Rather out of the media spotlight for some time, the senior service has been overshadowed by the army-centric campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The formal naming ceremony for her younger sister, HMS Prince of Wales will be held on 8th September in Rosyth. Just before Christmas, it is expected HMS QE will commission in Portsmouth in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen. This date has been brought forward from the original plan to commission in 2018. These milestone events will help keep media focus on the RN and the carrier project.
QE is still owned by her builders and has only completed the first part of her test and commissioning phase. The first phase of trials focussing on engines, steering, and auxiliary machinery was apparently completed very successfully. By coming to Portsmouth sooner than originally planned, her ship’s company can now get some well-deserved summer leave and a tricky re-entry into Rosyth is avoided. She will remain in Portsmouth for some time, probably around 8 weeks while planned engineering work is completed and issues encountered during trials are addressed. In the Autumn she will then sail for part 2 trials with a greater focus on mission systems, radars, communications, and electronics.
At this very early stage, QE is still more ship than warship, she has not yet even been fitted with her self-defence decoys, close in weapons systems (CIWS) and has no armament besides light machine guns.
Even when QE is a commissioned warship there will be a long process to fully train the ship’s company (pass Operational Sea Training), conduct flight trials and work up the air group before she can declare initial operating capability in 2020. Full operating capability (Carrier Strike) will not be achieved until 2023.
Next year 820 Naval Air Squadron will be the first operational squadron to embark aboard QE. Their Merlin Mk2s will practice their primary role of anti-submarine warfare, protecting the carrier from the underwater threat. In the last quarter of 2018 the first British F-35B Lightning will land on QE off the eastern coast of the United States. An 8-week flight testing period will be another landmark on the long road to restoring UK carrier capability.
In our next article, we will look more deeply at some of the concerns raised by critics arguing against the carrier project.
Related articles
- HMS Queen Elizabeth is ‘clear signal’ of UK’s ‘global power’, Theresa May says (Telegraph)
- When will HMS Queen Elizabeth start doing her job?… She already is (Nelson’s starboard anti-flash glove blog)
- UK F-35B – on final approach to QEC (Royal Aeronautical Society)
- Timeline for delivering Carrier Strike (Save the Royal Navy)
Thank you for a very good assesment of what next. This is something that appears to be missing from the tabloids and the public. One thing I do hope is that in her radar and self defence trials that some sea ceptor canisters are given so that she can try out the effectivness ofthis weapon as she is designed to carry it. As for the F35 rool on 2018 and then lets see what she can do. Good luck QE.
Is she designed to carry it? How?
I wrote a letter to my MP who then passed on my question on this subject the reply stated that she is equipped for but not fitted with a point defence missile system. Seeing that the future point defence missile is the Sea Ceptor this is what I expect would be carried when needed. Her Radar sysytems are capable so I expect it will be istalled on sponsons that are open. I did send a copy of my questions and the reply to save the RoyalNavy because it covered several diffrent areas not only about the QE defence system but the T31, T 26, T 45 and operational useage.
She would need quite a lot of work to fit a sea ceptor system. At the moment there are only test rounds available which are needed for the T23 trial. I doubt we will see an air defence missile on QW this side of 2025 if then.
Sea Ceptor is alreadt fitted to the T23 and is fully operational, I do agree that the likliyhood that she will have a fully installed system before 2025 but then again it is possible to strip the T23 of there systems when the are decommissioned and install them on the QE PoW. That what I would do but then I’m only a simple ex-military engineer so i’m seen as thick as two short planks.
Are you sure that the system is fully operational on the T23. My understanding is that 3 ships have the hardware but that no test firings have yet taken place. HMS Argyll Is due to start test fireings later this year.
Land system for Falklands. Industry waiting for juicy def contract for more maritime mounts.
even the exocets in storage after removal from previously retired ships could be encamped on west falkland.
montrose too
The problem is most of the equipment that is going to be stripped off the Type 23’s when they decomission is going to go straight onto the Type 26’s.
i see the new u.s carriers, along with many of its ships are to fitted with the raytheon 116 dual ciws and anti air system which to the treasury delight comes in at a reasonable$800000 per unit which has a space need almost the same as a phalanx
I just hope we don’t send her out to the South China Seas to ‘test’ the Chinese. She should be deployed in our home waters or to support a NATO ally.
How would we like it if an ex Imperial power of Opium wars fame sailed up the Channel?
They do.
When someone sails warships up the channel (for example Russia) we watch them closely and escort them through. Happens all the time.
“How would we like it if an ex Imperial power of Opium wars fame sailed up the Channel?”
I can assure you , any visit to the region will include a visit to Chinese ports. Big difference
go away you fool and take your vile childish politics with you. you are a fool.
Am I right in thinking she is unable to defend herself at present ? Is she protected by other ships / aircraft at Portsmouth ???
Correct, she is not commissioned yet, and so, even if she was fitted with weapons at the moment she wouldn’t be allowed to use them. It would be like a container ship in a harbour opening fire on someone in terms of legality.
HMNB Portsmouth is the largest Naval base in England, and there are usually type 45’s and type 23’s alongside there. Even then, we are not at war at the moment, so the risk is somewhat minimal.
Paul,
The Carriers are meant to be fitted out with 3 Phalanx CIWS and soft kill systems (Modern day equivalent of Chaff). Carriers are meant to have an escort, however, successive governments have ensured that in future that will be a lady of the night rather than a dedicated ship.
In the near term she will be working up in the home waters where one would suppose she will be under the cover of the RAF or an escorting warship. While in port, she will have the force protection that all naval assets have.
What sort of decoys will the 2 QECs get?
I for one simply cannot believe we can build a ship of this size and not fit her out with a catapult. That will come back to haunt us in the future.
What sort of catapult? That is the question.
Rely on the F35 being supreme for the next 50 years? 20 year project, easily put out of action if not sunk.One year minimum to get the spare carrier up to speed, crewed and equipped. About a decade to replace sufficient escorts.
it already is doing f 35b’s are going to japan before us.
We would like to visit Portsmouth this week to see this great vessel. Is there a viewing area, and equally important, how long is she due to be in Portsmouth?
She will be there for the next 12 months while they try to recruit enough free to deploy her.
She already has her full ships company and has done for some time Gerry you whining, negative ballbag.
she’ll be out again soon for phase two of her trials.
There is no dedicated Viewing area, though you can clearly see her stern from the public area around HMS Victory. I took a harbour tour cruise last Saturday (£8-00) and it goes right past her. She is bloody big!
Not really to do with ‘big lizzie’ but when to Eastbourne Airborne today. Nothing from theBay FAA Not even one helicopter. In the ‘Service’supplied Exhibition. The raf had a significant presence, with 17 static displays and 3 aircraft displays. The army had 7 static displays and a parachute display team. Royal Navy…. the mobile recruiting trailer……….. come on lads… don’t you want anyone to join?
In the past there use to be large models of ships and the static aircraft at these types of shows… couldn’the HMS Queen Elizabeth’s makers be asked to donate a large model for mutual publicity…..?
What’s her engine noise level?
Someone in the Guardian mentioned the Russians could hear it from Vladivostok when it leaves port.
They probably can’t hear you in Vladivostok but I bet they can smell the bullshit you talk pal.
ignore the fool he’s just a wind up merchant with no place on this site, his vile blinkered politics are an insult to a nation that has no doubt cosseted since sneaking onto our shores. one day he’ll have everything he writes moderated out i suffer the same problem, when i rip into this pathetic idiot my posts re not posted, but moderated out. its time the same equality’ was applied to him.
Can’t wait for the next article. Ofcouse the strongest argument against the big carriers is you lot constantly moaning about a lack of other ships.
I don’t like the ship’s name abbreviated to QE, it should be its full name and in italics, imagine HMS Prince of Wales abbreviated – POW! Also it should be realised that the two names are from old battleships and not of the present monarchy, although the gesture was probably taken into consideration, rather the naming them after two well established line of aircraft carriers from the last century – Ark Royal and Hermes, the latter having been the first ship to trial aircraft back in 1913 and (2nd) the first aircraft carrier to be built from the keel (in the world) – 1918/1919.
And what do you have to say about the fact that both carriers are named after a family of bone idle people forever reliant on public handouts? The House of Sax Coburg Gota has it far too good.
The only people who seem to get pilllried around here are ordinary people needing welfare assistance! Imagine the ships we could purchase if we didn’t have to support the extravagant lifestyles of the ‘hangers-on’ Royals like Euginie and Beatrice, who take 20 holidays a year in between doing nothing.
Those are the ramblings of a madman.
Don’t forget to doff your cap to your betters!
go back to wherever you came from pakistan, still taking from the nation and away from the country that you are no doubt happy to take from, but not give anything back to. take your narrow blinkered politics elsewhere,MODERATORS, GET THIS INSULTING FOOL OFF THE SITE HE IS AN OFFENSIVE FOOL.
and how does that qualify you, abone idle foreigner, to attack one of the main institutions that country is proud of. your persistent left wing rambling is offensive and unwanted. on behalf of those using the site, get lost and take your politics with you, you annoying troll you have never served this nation,which no doubt you have stolen from by its beniifits and multiculturalism if you take a holiday, then i’ve no doubt it will be this nation that pays for it. which you seem to be so bothered to constantly slag off with your nonsensical politics.if the moderators of this site had anything about them, you would be prevented from posting on here. g back under your stone the house of saxe gota is our business not yours . go away you fool
please will you pass this to the P.M with the request that i don’t want to wait 3 months for a half hearted reply like i’ve been doing on a regular basis harriet harmans re gurgiation of a worn out manifesto isn’t good enough, the nation deserves better. destroyers breaking down, frigates 5 years late, aircraft carriers with no planes, a patrol fleet of unarmed coast guard level boats, the type 31 frigate being designed on the back of a cigarette packet, the nations flagship up for sale, withdrawal of amphibious capability, who is responsible for all this and what will be done about it? the ROYAL NAVY royal laughing stock more like HAPLESS INEPT GOVERNMENT MINISTERS MAKING A TOTAL MESS OF THE NATIONS SECURITY. get it bloody well sorted out, sake those responsible for this on going fiasco, don’t fob taxpayers off with clap trap about new aircraft carriers and cutting edge aircraft. its all a lie and you’ve been found out.
an
I wonder if someone who is tech savvy can answer a question for me. With the QEs expecting to be in service for the next 50 years aircraft design will change. We are seeing the changes even now with more advanced pilot-less aircraft. The UK has the BaE test bed Taranis which is a stealth aircraft without a pilot. These are more than capable of being used from aircraft carriers, the US Navy is testing and bringing into operation the X-47B or the MQ-25. However, these aircraft require catapults and arrestor gear, again the US navy is introducing the electro-magnetic catapult.
My question is can an electro-magnetic catapult be installed into the ski jump of a RN carrier?
Is there space available for the arrestor gear?
If it is possible to install possibly the government should think about buying the equipment for the two carriers over a ten year period including two sqns of either Taranis, X-47Bs or MQ-25s and then when the vessels go in for a major refit the equipment would be there waiting.
I hope that these upgrades are possible as it would give the FAA the possibility of air-air refueling and deep strike SAM suppression without the risk to the F35 pilots.