HMS Prince of Wales: Commemorating the Naming of HMS PRINCE OF WALES

HMS PRINCE OF WALES C o m m e m o r a t i n g t h e N a m i n g o f H M S P R I N C E O F WA L E S

65,000 tonnes. 10,000 mile range.

73 metres high. Immeasurable pride.

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The breadth of our on-site expertise, unique facilities and world-class technical capabilities at Rosyth equip us to meet the greatest of challenges. We are especially honoured to be playing our part in the success story of this magnificent vessel.

On behalf of everyone at Babcock in Rosyth, we salute the Captain and crew of HMS Prince of Wales. We simply couldn’t be more proud.

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Built by a nation Proud to be part of the team delivering the Royal Navy’s biggest and most powerful warships

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PROTECTING THE PROTECTORS:

JOHNSON CONTROLS AND THE NAVY

Naval shipping is undergoing a major change. Ships that 70 years ago would have required crews of thousands are now manned by a mere few hundred sailors.

The sophistication and speed of technology is growing with every passing year, and it’s replacing crew members in a lot of areas, from the gunnery to on-board safety. In fire prevention and security in particular, we’re seeing the rise of a much more handsoff, tech-on approach in the navy.

Smaller teams are now assigned to monitor automated protection and prevention systems. Smart technology holds the key to naval safety.

Smart technology - the pros and cons Such pieces of smart equipment are capable of everything from incident analysis designed to prevent false alarms through to

intelligent entry management, using cards or biometrics to keep restricted areas safe. This has its ups and its downs. Although it increases efficiency on-board and helps to keep costs down, the reduced manpower means that if something does go wrong, there are many fewer bodies available to assist. Navy vessels are also increasingly being commissioned for tours measured in years rather than months. Fire and security equipment must be able to go extremely long periods without returning to dock, and any repairs that need doing must be performed on-board, without assistance.

servicing, reducing the time and number of call-outs required for their maintenance, and increasing their effectiveness on-board. For example, if fire detection systems are integrated with the ship’s CCTV through a single software package, then security staff can use video imagery to improve the accuracy of fire detection and diagnosis. This in turn will allow them to provide a more accurate response, becoming aware much earlier if a fire is likely to become serious enough to endanger the ship, and responding in kind. Not only this, but such integration allows for joint servicing, so that one engineer can attend to both systems.

To make this model sustainable, the navy must invest in futureproof solutions which can be updated as required and serviced at sea. New and innovative service models and component design mean that multiple fire and security systems can be integrated both for operation and for

Enter Tyco - the world’s leading marine fire & security specialist

Tyco is now Johnson Controls For more information please call 0800 389 3195 or visit tycoifs.co.uk | johnsoncontrols.com

For the navy to be successful in implementing a smart fire and security posture, it needs the right suppliers behind it. Tyco, which recently merged with Johnson

Controls, is perfectly placed to help equip naval vessels with the latest cutting edge technology, from water mist and deck foam to intelligent fire detection, gas dispersion and perimeter defence.

With experience going back to 1854 and with over 80 per cent of the world’s naval and commercial fleets protected by Tyco, it has the expertise and the manpower to provide round-the-clock cover for the navy.

Tyco has worked on fire and security projects on board a wide range of naval vessels, from Type 45 D-class destroyers to RFA Bayclass landing ships, meeting the unique requirements of each type and ensuring they can operate successfully with a reduced crew and a more frontline role for technology. When the Royal Navy launched its Astute class nuclear submarines, for example, Tyco was commissioned to install an innovative, reliable networked fire detection and alarm system. The system had to interface seamlessly with the vessel’s numerous other systems. The Astute class can circumnavigate the globe without surfacing, so any fire detection system had to last for as long as possible without servicing.

Tyco is also leading the way to the future of seagoing fire and security on board the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier.

These ships represent the cutting edge of naval technology, and must be prepared for lengthy tours of duty in some of the most challenging hotspots in the world.

The new vessels will be equipped with a wide range of essential systems from Tyco designed to protect crews and equipment no matter the situation. From foam spraying on the flight deck and rapid reaction mist in the magazine to fibreoptic fire detection and anti-chemical warfare spray, Tyco has the expertise to keep Britain’s defenders safe.

Innovative service However, no matter how welldesigned a system is, it will always need servicing eventually. One of the hallmarks of the Tyco service model is at-ship maintenance, which helps to prevent mission interruptions and costly harbour visits. Operating out of bases at strategic locations around the world, Tyco’s technicians are able to attend ships in need wherever they are. An unattended fault on board a deployed ship could cost millions in damage, not to mention the expense and disruption of having to return to port.

By operating a flexible and global service, the company plays its part in ensuring that the navy can run at full capacity at all times. A key example of this model is Tyco’s

Jason Pendlebury

Director, Oil Gas & Marine cylinder exchange programme, in which support ships meet a naval vessel at sea and replace its gas cylinders in situ, without the need for a home journey. With the ability to depressurise and refill essential canisters while on deployment, naval vessels have the flexibility to operate freely, whatever demands are placed upon them As personnel numbers drop and technology becomes ever more important in the safe operation of naval vessels, an innovative approach to both the operation and maintenance of fire and security systems is essential. In an uncertain world, a reliable, intelligent safety network is indispensable. Tyco’s futureproof, flexible product range and servicing models are helping the navy to meet these challenges head-on.

Tyco’s evolution

1852

1960

1976

1980s

2011

2016

Mather & Platt established. Grows into global fire protection company

Tyco Inc. founded as government research lab

Mather & Platt acquired by Wormald

Tyco acquires Wormald, becoming major player in fire protection

Tyco International splits off fire protection arm, now one of the world’s largest fire and security companies

Tyco merges with Johnson Controls

PROUD TO SUPPORT THE ROYAL NAVY’S AIRCRAFT CARRIERS & FLEET - PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

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HMS PRINCE OF WALES

C o m m e m o r a t i n g t h e N a m i n g o f H M S P R I N C E O F WA L E S

PHOTO BY MARIO TESTINO ©

I

am delighted today to mark the historic occasion of this naming ceremony for HMS Prince of Wales. It represents a significant milestone on the journey to realisation of this transformative capability.

Today our country faces a complex and challenging international and domestic security environment, which is why we must ensure that we are able to protect our people and promote our interests. That means having the resilience and flexibility to respond to threats and opportunities.

Over the last five years we have reconfigured Britain’s Armed Forces so they are able to deal with modern and evolving threats. Where necessary, we will be ready to use force.

The Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) Carriers are part of the Carrier Enabled Power Projection Programme that brings together the aircraft carriers, F-35B Lightning aircraft, and the CROWSNEST capability (providing Airborne Surveillance and Control) to form a highly versatile and potent joint defence capability, able to meet the widest range of tasks around the world. At the core of the capability, and with an expected service life of 50 years, the QEC aircraft carriers are the largest, most capable, flexible and powerful surface warships ever constructed in the UK, and have been tailor-made for the 5th Generation Lightning jet aircraft. Delivering the strike punch, with its advanced sensors, mission systems, weapons and low-observable technology (stealth), our Lightning squadrons will provide the UK with a world-beating combat air capability; they will be jointly manned by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

These immense vessels will be capable of performing the widest range of roles, from Carrier Strike and Littoral Manoeuvre (Battlefield Helicopter support to our embarked military forces) in high-intensity combat operations, through counter-terrorism, to humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

The QEC aircraft carriers will operate as part of a Maritime Task Group, tailored to the operational requirement, offering a transformative base for the projection of air and amphibious power. The significance of this second ship of her class is that we can ensure that the UK will always have one carrier available 100% of the time, either at sea or alongside at very high readiness.

We will continue to tackle extremism and defeat those who threaten our country, remaining at the forefront of the NATO Alliance and maintaining our world-class Armed Forces with the equipment and capabilities needed to deliver security for the United Kingdom in an unstable world. These magnificent ships and the power they project will form the bulwark of our contribution to these essential duties for decades to come. The naming of HMS Prince of Wales is a historic day, a ship which proudly bears the name of the heir to the throne, and the battle honours of seven previous ships dating from the 17th Century.

Sir Gordon Messenger KCB, DSO*, OBE, ADC Vice Chief of the Defence Staff

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HMS Queen Elizabeth

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he name Prince of Wales has been borne by no fewer than seven Royal Navy vessels over the past two-and-a-half centuries.

The last, a battleship, was the venue for Winston Churchill’s historic meeting with President Roosevelt in 1941, out of which emerged the Atlantic Charter. This agreement would later form the basis for the United Nations, and shaped the relative peace and prosperity that our own nation has enjoyed since the end of the Second World War. The advent of a new HMS Prince of Wales is therefore hugely significant. Today, the world is becoming more competitive and less safe, and the United Kingdom must play its part to preserve and strengthen the global security upon which we depend. For most countries, the political and economic challenges of building and operating aircraft carriers are prohibitive. To build one carrier is a statement of national ambition; so, building two is an unmistakable sign of commitment to our own defence, and that of our allies.

Together, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will ensure the Royal Navy has one carrier available for operations at all times. When paired with the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, they will serve as a powerful conventional deterrent, working with our sister services to project British power and influence at sea, in the air, over the land and in cyberspace. They will support all the arms of Government to promote the United Kingdom’s place in the world, delivering aid and disaster relief and serving as an awe-inspiring venue for trade fairs and high level diplomatic engagements. In all these tasks, they will be aided by the best ambassadors our country could wish for: our servicemen and women.

The Royal Navy is thrilled that Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Rothesay, will name this ship, which perpetuates the long and happy association between the Senior Service and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

I congratulate all those in Rosyth and in shipyards and businesses across the country for their part in this great endeavour.

Through their skill and expertise, the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers represent the United Kingdom’s industrial and engineering ability. Once in service with the Royal Navy, they will symbolise our military power and national authority for decades to come.

Admiral Sir Philip Jones KCB ADC - First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff

HMS Queen Elizabeth

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1860 miles of cable Copyright© Aircraft Carrier Alliance

produced by AEI for HMS Prince of Wales

Same as walking bow to stern 10,700 times Proud suppliers to two Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers: HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth

It’s a blistering way to get your sea legs, but helps quantify the staggering amount of AEI Cables installed on this prestigious Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales.

1860 miles equates to 3 million metres, covering over 300 different cable types manufactured to the exacting standards required by the Royal Navy.

We supply cables for:

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• High performance wires and cables for Naval power, instrumentation and communications • Armoured fighting vehicles • Weapon systems • Soldier systems 01. NES 526 02. Def Stan 61-12 Pt 25 03. NES 527

04. Propulsion Cable

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I

am incredibly proud to witness the official naming of HMS Prince of Wales and, as Chairman of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, am honoured to welcome you all to Rosyth.

2017 has been a momentous year for the Royal Navy, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance and the Nation, with HMS Queen Elizabeth having successfully completed the first phase of her sea trials programme and entering Portsmouth for the first time.

These two‎ aircraft carriers will be the centrepiece of the fleet for the next 50 years, providing an enduring and versatile carrier capability for the Royal Navy.

I would like to commend the skills and hard work of colleagues across the Alliance which have enabled us to reach this historic moment in the PWLS programme. HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are a great example of this nation’s engineering skills and ingenuity. Over 10,000 people have come together to bring these ships to life, from early design to the magnificent ships they are today, and it is thanks to their industrious endeavours and pride that we are today able to name our nation’s second Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier.

We welcome Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Rothesay to name the ship in front of our distinguished guests and the families of those who helped make this ship a reality.

This ship represents the best in design, engineering and partnership from across the United Kingdom. The collaborative working between the partners of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance has been a cornerstone to the success of the programme.

To the Royal Navy, HMS Prince of Wales offers the armed forces four-acres of sovereign ground, capable of being deployed anywhere in the world. She will provide security at sea; international partnership, humanitarian assistance and protection of the United Kingdom’s interests across the world for the next 50 years.

Today marks an exciting moment in history. On behalf of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance I thank you for being a part of this celebration.

Sir Peter Gershon Chairman of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance KCB ADC

HMS Queen Elizabeth

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FOREWORD The HMS Prince of Wales Naming Ceremony marks a seminal moment in the development and generation of the United Kingdom’s future joint defence capability. With the second of the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) carriers build programme progressing steadily, and with her entry into service now just a few years away, the United Kingdom’s 365 24/7 Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP) vision is well on its way to fruition.

HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, continue the tradition of British aircraft carrier innovation. They are the first carriers to be designed specifically for fifth-generation fast jets, and they are the first to pioneer the twin island concept that facilitates safe and efficient air operations with an enviable sortie rate.

Beyond that, the QEC warships are the embodiment of joint capability, with all three services contributing to their soft- and hard-power projection missions.

All three services will fly their rotary craft from the ships as they become platforms for Army Air Corps Apache, Royal Air Force Chinook and Royal Navy Merlin CROWSNEST and Wildcat helicopters. The QEC’s main weapon system, the F-35B Lightning, will be flown by the resurrected RAF 617 “Dambusters” Squadron and the Fleet Air Arm’s 809 Naval Air Squadron. And when boots on the ground are required, the British Army and Royal Marines will embark troops for a range of future security and stability operations around the globe.

Dubbed the year of the Navy, 2017 is shaping up to be just that. With HMS Queen Elizabeth having successfully commenced her maiden sea trials in the summer and having recently entered her home port of Portsmouth, the Royal Navy continues to reinvigorate itself. When HMS Prince of Wales enters service, she will join an existing fleet of some of the world’s most modern and advanced warships – Astute submarines, Daring-class destroyers, Tide-class tankers – and she will await the introduction of the City-class Type 26 frigates and the Dreadnought ballistic missile submarines. As a maritime nation, these ships and particularly the new aircraft carriers are essential for the UK’s future security and prosperity.

Simon Michell Editor

HMS Queen Elizabeth

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THE BIGGEST IN THE ROYAL NAVY DEMANDED THE BEST IN LOGISTICS WHEN THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER ALLIANCE (ACA) NEEDED A LOGISTICS PROVIDER TO SUPPORT THE BUILD PROGRAMME FOR THE QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE PRINCE OF WALES, THE LARGEST SHIPS THE ACA HAD EVER BUILT, IT WAS WINCANTON THAT PROVED TO BE THE BEST FIT. Wincanton is a market-leading 3PL providing supply chain consultancy and solutions to a number of the world’s most recognisable brands. From the company’s origins in 1925 delivering milk and dairy products, Wincanton has grown significantly and now employs more than 17,500 people across 200+ UK sites serviced with a fleet of 3,400 vehicles.

Whether partnering with niche retailers or global brands, Wincanton adds value through extensive supply chain expertise and an innovative approach to tackling the logistics challenges of today and beyond.

It was this innovative approach and extensive experience that Wincanton utilised to support the ACA project. The specifically-tailored solution provided an unprecedented level of material visibility and supply with the backing of a state-of-the-art IT platform.

The carrier build was a substantial engineering exercise with the added complexity of multiple participating companies across a wide geographical spread. With assembly points at shipyards across the UK, the control and visibility of this considerable inventory was the responsibility of Wincanton who, since the beginning of the build, provided a virtually

100% service level for the vast majority of the equipment used in the build of the Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales.

Wincanton have been in partnership with the ACA since 2009 and have provided an ever-increasing scope of service, an enviable track record of delivering under budget and impressive cost saving initiatives. A great combination.

The introduction of Wincanton’s transport network capability into this sector has opened up tremendous cost saving opportunities by consolidating supplier deliveries across both the UK and the international supply base offering a true global reach.

These logistical synergies provide competitive advantage to both the ACA as final user but also, crucially, the suppliers themselves.

Combine these efficiency savings with Wincanton expertise for compliance across Defence sector and you have a true partnership delivering outstanding performance.

Why not talk to Wincanton? Call 0844 335 0502 or go to www.wincanton.co.uk/defence

CONTENTS

21 The Ship’s Crest

38 HMS Prince of Wales

By Alan Dron

22 Inside the QEC Aircraft Carriers 24 Joint Operations with the Royal Air Force

By Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, Chief of the Air Staff

26 Joint Operations with the British Army

By General Sir Nicholas Carter, Chief of the General Staff

42 Lessons Learned

By Simon Michell

46 ATC at Sea

By Jenny Beechener

50 HMS Prince of Wales Affiliates

By Simon Michell

52 M ade in Britain

By Simon Michell

28 The UK Carrier Strike Group

By Simon Michell

34 Joint Approach – An Industrial Perspective

By Steve Wadey

36 Core Naval Values

By Simon Michell

56 From the Flight Deck to the Engine Room

By David Hayhurst

61 Key Facts About the Queen Elizabeth-class Aircraft Carriers 62 Why Aircraft Carriers?

By Simon Michell

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CONTENTS

70 Why Are Big Deck Carriers Better?

By Norman Friedman

106 HMS Prince of Wales – The Air Crews

By Mike Bryant

78 UK Naval Strategy and the Aircraft Carrier

By Simon Michell

86 Supporting HMS Prince of Wales

By Simon Michell

110 The Aircraft

By Nick Cook

116 HMS Prince of Wales – A Proud Lineage

By Chuck Oldham

90 Global Reach

By Simon Michell 94 Upholding the Rule of Law

118 B ritish Aircraft Carrier Battles – from Taranto to the Falklands War

By Mark Daly

By Simon Michell

98 Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief Operations Typhoon Haiyan, Philippines 102 The Royal Marines

By Lieutenant Colonel Giles Ebbutt RM (Retd)

124 Lessons from the Falklands

By Simon Michell

130 C elebrating 100 Years of Carrier Air Power

By Sue Eagles

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HMS PRINCE OF WALES Commemorating the Naming of HMS Prince of Wales Published by Faircount Media Group 4915 W. Cypress St. Tampa, FL 33607 Tel: 813.639.1900 www.defensemedianetwork.com www.faircount.com EDITORIAL Editor in Chief: Chuck Oldham Consulting Editor: Simon Michell Managing Editor: Ana E. Lopez Editor: Rhonda Carpenter Contributing Writers: Jenny Beechener, Mike Bryant, General Sir Nicholas Carter, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, Nick Cook, Mark Daly, Alan Dron, Lt Col Giles Ebbutt Rm (Retd), Sue Eagles, Norman Friedman, David Hayhurst, Simon Michell, Chuck Oldham, Steve Wadey

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Art Director: Robin K. McDowall Designer: Daniel Mrgan Ad Traffic Manager: Rebecca Laborde ADVERTISING Ad Sales Manager: Steve Chidel Account Executive: Andrew Moss OPERATIONS AND ADMINISTRATION Chief Operating Officer: Lawrence Roberts VP, Business Development: Robin Jobson Business Development: Damion Harte Financial Controller: Robert John Thorne Chief Information Officer: John Madden Business Analytics Manager: Colin Davidson FAIRCOUNT MEDIA GROUP Publisher, North America: Ross Jobson

ŠCopyright Faircount LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Certain images and text were used with permission of the Ministry of Defence and Royal Navy, and in no way are used to imply an endorsement by the Royal Navy or any Ministry of Defence entity for any claims or representations therein. The reproduction of advertisements in this publication does not in any way imply endorsement by the Royal Navy.

Faricount LLC does not assume responsibility for the advertisements, nor any representation made therein, nor the quality or deliverability of the products themselves.

A&P GROUP – PROUD TO HAVE CONSTRUCTED BLOCK 3 OF THE HMS PRINCE OF WALES AIR CRAFT CARRIER FLIGHT DECK AND HANGAR

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS • 2,200 TONNES OF STEEL WORK STRUCTURE • 10,000 METERS OF PIPEWORK • 30,000 METERS OF ELECTRICAL CABLE • 2,000 METERS OF VENTILATION TRUNK • 100 WATER TIGHT DOORS • 750 LARGE ITEMS OF EQUIPMENT

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A&P has extensive fabrication expertise, having built modules of new build Bay Class landing ships, as well as for the Astute Submarine Class, the prestigious HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales Aircraft Carriers.

Other high profile projects include providing UKCATTS Customisation Trials and In Service Support for four new RFA Tideclass vessels – the first of which, the RFA Tidespring, was welcomed to A&P Falmouth in April 2017.

THE SHIP’S CREST

HMS Prince of Wales

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inside

THE QEC AIRCRAFT CARRIERS

HMS Prince of Wales

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JOINT OPERATIONS WITH THE ROYAL AIR FORCE Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, Chief of the Air Staff, outlines the progress the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy are making towards joint F-35B Lightning operations off HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

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HMS Prince of Wales

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, Chief of the Air Staff

the Lightning Conversion Unit. Our Lightning squadrons will be integrated from the outset, comprising both RN and RAF personnel. Command of 617 Squadron will in future rotate between the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), an arrangement which will be mirrored when the second front-line F-35B squadron, 809 Squadron of the FAA, re-forms at RAF Marham in 2023. By taking a truly Joint approach to the Lightning Force – not only in the squadrons but across the whole

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL AIR FORCE PHOTO

t is my very great pleasure to extend the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) warmest congratulations to the Royal Navy (RN), and to everyone in the Aircraft Carrier Alliance across the country, on the naming of HMS Prince of Wales.

Today’s celebration reminds us that HMS Queen Elizabeth will soon be joined at sea by this mighty ship, but it also marks a further important waypoint on our journey to regeneration of the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) Carrier Strike capability. Indeed, the term regeneration does not adequately describe the transformation in Joint naval and air power projection capabilities represented by the HMS Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers and the F-35B Lightning. The Ministry of Defence, the RN and RAF are working hand-in-hand with British industry to generate a capability: one that demonstrates the UK’s commitment to fulfilling its international obligations and our intent to deliver decisive battle-winning effects in an era of rapidly advancing and changing threats across the globe. With HMS Prince of Wales, we will have the two aircraft carriers needed to ensure that the UK will always have one ship available for operations.

The F-35B Lightning will be the principal weapon system of the QEC aircraft carriers, and its development – like that of the aircraft carriers – is making very good progress. Number 617 Squadron, the first of our Lightning squadrons, will reform in the United States of America (USA) and return to RAF Marham in the summer of next year. In two years’ time, all UK training will have transferred from the USA to the UK, with the formation at RAF Marham of 207 Squadron,

CROWN COPYRIGHT/JNCO PHOTO BY CPL PAUL OLDFIELD

An F-35B flies over its future home at RAF Marham. The F-35B Lightning will be the principal weapon system for HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship operated jointly by the RAF and RN using tried and tested procedures.

support network too – we will bring together the very best of RAF and RN expertise to deliver an unrivalled air power capability for the UK from both land and sea bases.

We will continue to work extremely closely with our US Air Force and Marine Corps partners to ensure that we sustain the UK’s unique position in the programme. The UK’s leading role within the F-35 programme also serves as a vote of confidence in British defence and aerospace engineering. UK industry has a 15 percent stake in the F-35 programme, which is expected to deliver more than 3,000 aircraft to customers worldwide and will generate in the region of 24,000 UK jobs in high-end technology-based professions. We are successfully integrating UK weapons too, as demonstrated earlier this year by the successful MBDA ASRAAM firings in the USA. So, the F-35 is great news not only for the RAF and RN, but for British industry and the UK’s economy too.

Whilst HMS Queen Elizabeth is fitted for war-fighting capabilities, the RAF and RN are building up their ability to operate Lightnings from her decks, and we expect to begin the “First of Class Flying Trials” in Autumn 2018 – 101 years after Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning of the Royal Naval Air Service made the first successful landing by an aircraft on a moving ship on HMS Furious at Scapa Flow. Indeed, the RAF and RN have a long and distinguished history of integrating our force elements, and in building the foundation of our Lightning Force, we have drawn heavily on our vast combined experience of operating Harriers and Sea Harriers from

the sea and from the land, on operations around the world.

Today’s naming of HMS Prince of Wales is a proud moment for all those involved in the aircraft carrier and F-35 Lightning programmes. Based on the excellent progress that is being made by HMS Queen Elizabeth and our F-35 squadrons, we should be ready to fly our Lightnings from HMS Prince of Wales’ deck in 2020, and will shortly thereafter declare initial operating capability. The RAF is proud to be part of this very important enterprise, which will help safeguard our nation’s interests and project our country’s influence for decades to come. I therefore offer my sincere congratulations – and those of the RAF as a whole – on the naming of HMS Prince of Wales, and I look forward to the day very soon when RN and RAF people and aircraft fulfil this famous ship’s missions across the globe.

HMS Prince of Wales

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JOINT OPERATIONS WITH THE BRITISH ARMY General Sir Nicholas Carter, Chief of the General Staff, looks forward to joint operations off HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

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HMS Prince of Wales

General Sir Nicholas Carter, Chief of the General Staff.

MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT’ PHOTO

ne hundred years this summer, Edwin Dunning became the first pilot to land an aircraft on a moving ship. If he could see the impressive technological advances of today’s Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers and the F-35 Lightning aircraft they will carry he would be astounded. We have come a long way and through some turbulent times since then.

Today, we are once again facing tumultuous times. While conflicts of the past 16 years have relied heavily on land forces conducting counter-insurgency operations and building our partners’ capacity to look after their own security needs, tomorrow’s conflicts run the risk of being something far different. Warfare most likely will require joint combined arms operations, where maritime, air and land forces work closely together to achieve integrated effects. Success will be achieved by the forces that best leverage the strengths of each of its services and create synergies that outmatch capable and adaptive enemies.

CROWN COPYRIGHT PHOTO BY MR RICHARD KING ADSL MMC

The Army is proud to stand together with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and is looking forward to achieving new ways to integrate our capabilities and the military advantage that doing so will offer.

HMS Prince of Wales is a significant addition to a ready and capable Joint Force and brings with her impressive power projection capabilities. In particular, the Army is looking forward to the air power the QEC can deliver in support of operations on the ground. And, in turn, the Army will lend its unique strengths to enabling maritime and air power to bring maximum effect to bear – whether tasked to disrupt an adversary’s anti-access capabilities aimed at keeping friendly air and maritime forces out of the fight, seizing and holding key terrain, or defeating enemy land forces. Together, we will defend the nation and continue to preserve the international order that underpins our collective prosperity.

The British Army AH1 Apache attack helicopter will be certified to operate off HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, on joint operations.

HMS Prince of Wales

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THE UK CARRIER STRIKE GROUP Commodore Andrew Betton took command of the UK Carrier Strike Group in September 2016.

Simon Michell asks him what it consists of, how it will operate, and what it can achieve.

“

An aircraft carrier does exactly what it says on the tin. It takes aircraft to where you need to operate them – with the added benefit that the ship remains UK sovereign territory and that it can carry everything needed to sustain its aircraft for weeks or months on end,” explains Commodore (Cdre) Andrew Betton, the United Kingdom’s current Carrier Strike Group (CSG) commander. Having relieved Cdre Jeremy Kyd in September 2016, Cdre Betton confirms that the process of preparing HMS Prince of Wales’ sister ship and first in class, HMS Queen Elizabeth, for her first operational deployment in 2021 is progressing according to plan. “Preparations are proceeding apace across a really broad front – everything from the physical preparation of Portsmouth naval base to receive the carriers to the various different elements of the air wing,” he says.

However, getting the base and the equipment ready is only one side of the story. The other side is the 28

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people, the crew and then the glue that binds the sum of all these parts together: the CSG staff.

The Carrier Strike Group Staff Based in a relatively small set of offices in Victory Building at Portsmouth, the CSG staff is taking shape. Betton clarifies what it does and what it is made up of: “It is a team of about 70 specialists – predominantly officers with a few senior ratings in the mix. Together they cover a broad spectrum of maritime expertise. We have fighter pilots, helicopter aircrew, logisticians, warfare officers, submariners, intelligence, cyber and communications specialists – all sorts.” He continues, “The staff is built around three core functions – operations, information warfare, and logistics – but what makes the Carrier Strike Group special is the addition of a strike warfare cell with fixed-wing, helicopter and submarine expertise. This cell generates the strike

ROYAL NAVY/CROWN COPYRIGHT

Type 23 frigates HMS Sutherland (F81) and HMS Iron Duke (F234) escorted HMS Queen Elizabeth during the aircraft carrier’s maiden sea trials. Frigates are the primary antisubmarine escorts for the Carrier Strike Group (CSG), with Type 45 destroyers the primary anti-air warfare vessels.

Submarines, support vessels, and various warships from allied nations, as well as the carrier’s own aircraft, comprise other elements of the CSG.

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The Queen Elizabeth-class carriers will host up to 36 F-35B Lightning strike fighters. The F-35B retains the V/STOL capabilities of the Harrier and Sea Harrier, but adds stealth, supersonic speed, multi-sensor fusion and outstanding situational awareness.

‘DNA’ that flows right through the staff, giving it a focus on strike operations.”

CROWN COPYRIGHT, PHOTO BY SAC TIM LAURENCE

The Carrier Strike Group Essentially, a CSG consists of the carrier, its escorts, support vessels and, when applicable, associated land-based aircraft.

In terms of the UK carrier group, the exact configuration has not yet been decided and in all likelihood will change according to the mission. That said, whenever one of the carriers deploys, it is likely to be escorted by a number of frigates as part of the anti-submarine defence layer, destroyers for air defence, and potentially an integrated submarine for the longer-range surveillance and protection. There are also

a number of other supporting elements that will play a part. “Support shipping is a key part of the group. Any future CSG may well be accompanied by one of the future fleet support ships as well as a Tide-class tanker to replenish stores of food and ammunition as well as fuel, water, and all the other things that are required on a long deployment,” Betton explains. Since the UK is a key player in the NATO Alliance and a frequent contributor to coalition operations, it is a distinct possibility that the escorts and support shipping may on occasions belong to a partner nation.

So, what can a CSG offer in terms of options to the government of the day? “It is important to remember HM Ships Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales have been built from the keel up to operate up to 36 fifth-generation F-35B Lightning strike fighters. That is their primary output. But, the beauty of their size and scale means you have got the ability to do so much more with them.” By this, Betton means that you can have various mixtures of aircraft on board to undertake a range of different roles. In fact, it could, if desired, operate solely with helicopters, and indeed by 2018, HMS Queen Elizabeth will have that capability.

The on-board aircraft Alongside the F-35B, the new carriers can embark any aircraft that has been cleared for carrier operations. In terms of UK aircraft this covers Royal Navy (RN) rotary-wing assets such as Merlin, Merlin CROWSNEST,

HMS Prince of Wales

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and Wildcat. Added to that, you have the Royal Air Force Chinook and Puma helicopters, and crucially the Army Air Corps Apache gunships, which add another element of Carrier Strike to the capability. Then you have partner-nation aircraft that have the appropriate certifications.

Primarily, that means F-35Bs as well as some interesting aircraft, like the V-22 tilt-rotor that the US Marine Corps (USMC) use aboard their carriers. In fact, the USMC MV-22 is being converted as an air-to-air tanker able to refuel F-35Bs whilst airborne. The three core F-35B customers are the Americans, British, and Italians. It is possible that this group may expand in the future. As well as embarked aircraft, there may well be times when the CSG is accompanied by land-based aircraft fulfilling specific roles – a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and/or an E-3D Sentry airborne early warning and control aircraft.

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS MICHAEL B. ZINGARO

Responding to crises According to Betton, “What the British government is getting with the procurement of the QE-class (QEC) carriers is the ability to go to the crisis before it comes to us. In a high-end conflict, this would probably be in the Carrier Strike role. But, if it is a response to an earthquake or tsunami or some sort of humanitarian crisis, you could adapt to conduct a non-combatant evacuation or a disaster relief operation.”

The CSG staff are already in training for any of these eventualities and in early 2017, Betton and his team conducted synthetic (computer-based) training with the US Navy as it was preparing to deploy a carrier to the Middle East. This was a thorough examination. “They tested us in a tough tactical environment to put us through our paces.

They made sure that we understood the complexity and importantly that we were focusing on the right areas of tactical and doctrinal development,” Betton says.

“It is going to be a complex journey to prepare for the first planned Carrier Strike deployment in 2021, but we expect to achieve

Left to right: Royal Navy Duke-class frigates HMS Iron Duke (F 234) and HMS Westminster (F 237), Royal Norwegian Navy frigate Helge Ingstad (F 313), Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08), and US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75), aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush (CVN 77), and guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) sail in formation during exercise Saxon Warrior 2017. Royal Navy Carrier Strike Groups may often work in cooperation with allied and partner nation ships.

initial capability in discrete areas before then. In 2018, we will have initial operating capability for some of the rotary-wing assets, and with the jets on board by the autumn of 2018 for flight trials, the reality of bringing this fantastic capability to fruition is tantalisingly close.”

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JOINT APPROACH –

AN INDUSTRIAL PERSPECTIVE

Steve Wadey, QinetiQ’s chief executive officer, highlights the establishment of a Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP) campaign team dedicated to the development and application of innovative capabilities to defeat emerging threats.

I

n a world where threats to global security from both state and non-state actors have increased, the ability to apply decisive effect through a “joint” approach has never been more important. An increasingly technical battlespace requires the contribution of both government and industry to rapidly develop new and disruptive capabilities to defeat emerging threats. The defence industry needs to be forward-looking and proactive, working together to prioritise the rapid development of new capabilities through value-creating innovation, alongside driving greater value for money and improving services.

As we celebrate the Naming Ceremony for the second-in-class aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, following the start of HMS Queen Elizabeth’s successful sea trials and with the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) F-35B fast jets rapidly approaching introduction into service, the UK is about to witness a seismic shift in both capability and the way it delivers operational and strategic effect. The integration challenge to deliver an effective joint force is considerable, requiring a joint approach between government and industry. To meet the challenge, QinetiQ has formed a dedicated campaign team, focused on drawing together the components of Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP), connecting technology, domains, supply chains and international allies to deliver a truly joint force. By proactively engaging with stakeholders across government and industry, the campaign team will draw together the key issues associated with the delivery of CEPP. This will then enable QinetiQ to focus its resources 34

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to respond to the issues and offer innovative and cost-efficient solutions to the complex problems associated with such an ambitious and important programme.

Delivering a strong UK Test and Evaluation capability is critical to ensuring the reliable, flexible and affordable delivery of military capability to protect national interests.

QinetiQ’s aim is to deliver future military capability ready for the next decade and beyond, whilst also addressing current and emerging threats.

Our Long Term Partnering Agreement with the MOD ensures the UK has worldclass competitive ranges and training, and delivers the necessary capability efficiently.

Likewise, the Naval Combat System Integration Support Services contract keeps the UK’s surface warships at sea and fit to fight. QinetiQ’s increasing investment in UK ranges reflects its commitment to the development of cost-effective test, evaluation and training facilities which will enable the generation of a highly effective joint force.

Whilst the UK maintains its independent national defence capabilities, it is unlikely that

QINETIC PHOTO BY NICHOLAS JOHN DAY

The modernisation of QinetiQ’s test and evaluation tracking radars in the Hebrides will enhance development of future Carrier Strike capabilities.

it will operate in complete isolation in the future.

Therefore, an international mindset is essential from both a joint perspective and also from an industrial approach.

International connectivity and engagement is therefore an essential “enabler,” bringing greater coherence and focus to capability development activities. A key element of QinetiQ’s international strategy is to build its presence and capability outside the UK, particularly in the US and Australia. Closer to home, negotiations over the UK’s exit from the European Union will add complexity to its engagement in Europe.

However, many government

relationships for defence and security, particularly in Europe, are underpinned by bilateral and multilateral agreements that will endure and continue to thrive beyond 2019. Whatever the final outcome of Brexit, QinetiQ will maintain strong links with its European allies.

With ever increasing demands for greater capability against a backdrop of continued financial pressure, value-creating innovation is vital to maintaining operational advantage. Technical innovation has always been at the heart of QinetiQ’s success. However, turning creativity and technical innovation into tangible outputs requires innovative thinking across the full range of capability development activities. It is only through working closely with MOD and industry that innovation can be applied rapidly to defeat emerging threats.

This joint approach will ensure that QinetiQ is at the heart of the delivery of a truly effective CEPP capability for the United Kingdom.

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ROYAL NAVY CORE VALUES Courage, commitment, discipline, respect, integrity and loyalty combined with cheerfulness and determination create the trust and respect that builds fighting spirit, explains Simon Michell.

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ll three of the United Kingdom’s armed forces have their own distinctive culture that separates them from each other. However, each is built upon a surprisingly similar set of core values: •R oyal Navy (RN): courage, commitment, discipline, respect, integrity and loyalty, •B ritish Army: loyalty, integrity, courage, discipline, respect and selfless commitment, • Royal Air Force (RAF): respect, integrity, service and excellence.

It is this mixture of core values and culture that creates the living ethos of the United Kingdom’s military might. They are tried and tested personal qualities that are demanded from every member of each service – from the newest recruit to the service chiefs, nobody is exempt. Everybody must share these values if they are going to be accepted by their colleagues and trusted in the most demanding and dangerous of situations. After all, there will almost certainly come a time where lives will depend on them.

That said, values have to be understood to be of any use. If they are only expressed as a robotic mantra they run the risk of becoming meaningless, and once that happens they lose their power. But, their explanations must also be valid and coherent for them to be accepted.

A distillation of the six core naval values offers the following short but clear descriptions: • c ourage is the mental and physical will to face danger, combined with the moral capacity to distinguish between right and wrong, • c ommitment means putting the needs of the mission and team ahead of self-interest, 36

HMS Prince of Wales

• discipline is the acceptance of lawful orders and regulations, • respect is treating others fairly – regardless of origins, ethnicity, and personal preferences, • integrity is being honest, sincere, unselfish, and reliable, • loyalty is a sense of duty and devotion to colleagues, the service, and above all the Monarch.

The eternal relevance of a set of core values serves a far better purpose than a mission statement or vision, which invariably sets a target or goal that once achieved requires a new vision and updated mission. Core values last forever. They are the

The six core naval values form the basis of operational capability.

soft skills or characteristics that help build teams, and lay down the basis for the all-important fighting spirit that a military force must have.

CROWN COPYRIGHT, PHOTO BY L(PHOT) BARRY WHEELER

Cheerfulness and determination Two other qualities which sit well with the six core values and which help to bind them into a greater service ethos are cheerfulness and determination. The very nature of military operations regularly brings people into harm’s way and severe discomfort. It is under these conditions that people’s behaviour influences the behaviour of those around them. It is the ability to make

light of harsh environments that spurs others on and gives them the will to endure. Seeing others grind on through what might appear to be a hopeless endeavour provides the visible motivation for others to continue.

The combined effect of all these values and qualities sets the UK armed forces apart from most other military organisations. And academics have clearly shown that technological supremacy and strategic advantage can easily be nullified if the people benefitting from them are unable to work together with good-humour, trust and respect.

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HMS PRINCE OF WALES The second of the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, HMS Prince of Wales, will guarantee the United Kingdom government an option to deliver Carrier Enabled Power Projection at a moment’s notice whenever it is needed. Alan Dron highlights the ship’s capability and reviews the build programme to date.

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hen the second Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is brought into service, the Royal Navy (RN) will have at least one carrier available for operations at all times. Refits, repairs, maintenance, and training periods – an inevitable part of every warship’s service life – necessitate the availability of sister ships to enable the uninterrupted delivery of a specific capability. The most obvious current example is the four Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines that have maintained a continuous at-sea deterrent patrol (Operation Relentless) every day since their introduction into service despite unforeseen incidents and scheduled periods of withdrawal of some of the boats from the active fleet.

The continuous carrier capability was not always a foregone conclusion though, as the decision to put HMS Prince of Wales into service was brought into question following the 2008 financial collapse. Two years after the financial crisis hit global markets, the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) saw the government announce that the ship would be sold off or mothballed upon completion. However, at the 2014 NATO summit in Newport, Wales, then-Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the second QEC ship would be brought into active service, meaning that the United Kingdom (UK) “will always have one carrier available, 100 percent of the time,” adding, “They are an investment in British security, British prosperity and our place in the world, transforming our ability to project power globally, whether 38

HMS Prince of Wales

independently or with our allies.” This was later confirmed in the 2015 SDSR. The decision means that the UK will have another four acres of sovereign territory that can be deployed around the globe in situations where the country cannot, or is unwilling to, station aircraft on land in the area of operations.

The availability of a second carrier, together with its air group of Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) multirole fighters alongside Leonardo Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, gives the UK the ability to deliver Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP) on a permanent basis – equally valuable during conflicts or civil disasters. Taking into

While HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are unlikely to operate together as shown in this computer-generated image, once in service, HMS Prince of Wales (background) will guarantee a continuous UK Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP) capability.

consideration the joint nature of CEPP, HMS Prince of Wales will also be able to embark Army Air Corps Apache attack helicopters as well as Royal Air Force Chinook heavy transport helicopters.

Engineering and construction Like her older sister, HMS Prince of Wales was constructed at Rosyth, in Fife. As with HMS Queen Elizabeth, she is being assembled from 52 huge blocks built by six shipyards around the UK that have all been ferried into the Fife shipyard. Construction began on May 26, 2011, with the first steel being cut at BAE Systems’ Govan shipyard in Glasgow.

One of the six shipyards to build some of HMS Prince of Wales’ blocks was A&P Group. The company’s Managing Director, David McGinley, explains: “A&P Group built section CB03 of the ship’s flight deck and hangar at its fabrication facilities in A&P Tyne. We constructed three

single structures and one double structure for the carrier.

These totaled 2,200 tonnes in all. We also fitted out the structures with more than 10,000 metres of pipework, 30,000 metres of electrical cable, 2,000 metres of ventilation trunk and 100 water tight doors before being transported by barge to Scotland. We delivered these sections five weeks ahead of schedule and to cost. It was a proud moment for all on the Tyne to see our work sail out of the river.”

The first major sections to be joined, Lower Blocks 02 and 03, weighing 6,000 tonnes and 8,000 tonnes respectively, were mated in September 2014.

A significant milestone was passed in October 2015 when the 26,500-tonne forward half of the ship was joined to the

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12,000-tonne “superblock” that makes up the rear of the vessel.

This feat of engineering saw the forward half of the ship moved back 17 metres on a special hydraulic system in a process called “skidding.” This resulted in the perfect joining of the two halves of the ship, with less than a 3mm tolerance down the centre line. The operation, which took 10 hours from start to finish, is believed to be a UK record in terms of the weight of ship that was skidded.

Another major milestone was achieved in 2015 when the two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines were installed in the vessel’s hull. The MT30s produce 36 megawatts, or 50,000 horsepower, apiece and are the world’s most “power-dense” marine gas turbines; that is, they produce the greatest amount of power output in the smallest possible space. The final section was placed in June 2016 at Rosyth when the Prince of Wales – or Duke of Rothesay, as he is officially known in Scotland – ordered the 570-tonne Sponson 11 into position,

allowing it to be welded into place and making the vessel structurally complete.

Manning the ship In January 2016, the first dozen members of the ship’s company arrived at Rosyth, with the ship’s first dedicated Senior Naval Officer, Captain Ian Groom, taking up his post in May of that year. His task is to see the vessel through its construction phase and lead the ship’s company as they learn about the ship and get to grips with how they will operate her when she goes to sea for the first time.

Part of this involves drawing on the experience and lessons learned by the crew of HMS Queen Elizabeth as they went through the same construction process.

The completion of the structure and arrival of the first crew members allowed the outfitting phase to get underway, followed by testing and commissioning of the vessel’s mission and propulsion

Image copyright Aircraft Carrier Alliance

Wear the name with pride

Lloyd’s Register would like to congratulate the Royal Navy on the naming of HMS Prince of Wales. We are proud to have worked with the UK’s Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) to design, approve, and class these new aircraft carriers. Through our team of multi-disciplined specialists, we provide in-depth support for military vessels by providing a range of services tailored to meet their needs. A holistic approach is taken for each project, whether it is at the concept stage, delivery during service or disposal and our support can be accessed anywhere in the world through our worldwide network of offices.

With our advisors on your team, you have a solution for every challenge. www.lr.org/naval

Lloyd’s Register and variants of it are trading names of Lloyd’s Register Group Limited, its subsidiaries and affiliates. Copyright © Lloyd’s Register Group Limited 2016. A member of the Lloyd’s Register group.

PHOTO BY JOHN LINTON

systems. More personnel were steadily added to the crew complement, with more than 100 on board by summer 2017, in time for her official naming on Sept. 8. Under current plans, HMS Prince of Wales will be handed over to the RN in 2019, commissioned in 2020, and have achieved full operational capability from 2023.

Over the summer of 2017, HMS Prince of Wales hit another milestone, when the ARTISAN 3D radar was installed on board. The radar will be the RN’s main medium-range surveillance and target designation radar for surface ships. Formally known as the Type 997, ARTISAN, which stands for Advanced Radar Target Indication Situational Awareness and Navigation, replaces the earlier Type 996 surveillance and target indication radar. It is installed atop the aft superstructure block and is designed to detect other vessels and aircraft, as well as allowing HMS Prince of Wales’ crew to manage aircraft traffic. ARTISAN 3D can monitor 800 objects simultaneously from as close as 200 metres out to 200km and is able to operate in a dense electronic environment – it has been tested to successfully pierce the interference created by 10,000 mobile phone signals. This capability to cut through electromagnetic interference is vital to allow it to cope with the heavy jamming that is anticipated in any major future conflict.

Bit by bit, as more of her mission systems are steadily brought to life, HMS Prince of Wales nears handover to the RN, coming ever closer to fulfilling her role as one of the service’s prime assets for the next 50 years.

Like HMS Queen Elizabeth, the second-in-class, HMS Prince of Wales, has been pieced together from 52 separate blocks.

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LESSONS LEARNED Simon Michell underlines the importance of sharing knowledge in the Queen Elizabeth-class build programme.

n June 22, 2016, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, or The Duke of Rothesay as he is referred to in Scotland, arrived at Babcock’s Rosyth ship-building facilities to give the signal for the final section of HMS Prince of Wales to be lowered into place by the giant Goliath crane that had been specifically built to facilitate the construction of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers. Moments after the 570-tonne block, dubbed Sponson 11, was carefully inched into position, marking a huge milestone, the Managing Director of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, Ian Booth, proudly declared that, “The team will now embark on the next phase of the ship’s construction. This involves extensive outfitting, testing and commissioning of her propulsion and mission systems, as the ship is brought to life.”

Getting to that stage last year was a momentous occasion, especially considering that the symbolic cutting of the ship’s first steel had only taken place in May 2011 by the then-Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox. From that point onward, the construction programmes for both ships overlapped each other, with the first-inclass, HMS Queen Elizabeth, about two years in advance of her sister ship. As in all multi-ship building programmes, lessons are learned and processes adapted as each ship in the class progresses along the build cycle. What was once considered the best way of doing something when the first-in-class was being built may have radically changed by the time the final ship is launched, particularly when new tools become available and their usage refined. HMS Prince of Wales Programme Manager, Neil Holm, confirms this sentiment, “The experiences, tools and techniques we created on HMS Queen Elizabeth will be applied and developed to ensure we deliver an outstanding ship which improves on what we achieved on HMS Queen Elizabeth, relative to schedule, cost and quality.”

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The process of learning lessons or Learning from Experience (LfE) is a key method for achieving efficiency gains and reducing the cost of construction. It is no surprise, therefore, that Ian Booth is keen to underline the fact that knowledge and experience is actually being transferred from one ship to another, insisting that, “The lessons being learned from HMS Queen Elizabeth are being captured and built into our plan and the approach we are taking on HMS Prince of Wales.” The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating, and throughout 2017 high profile visitors, including the current Secretary of State for Defence, Sir Michael Fallon,

CROWN COPYRIGHT PHOTO BY ANDREW LINNETT

Although now structurally complete, it will be a further two years before HMS Prince of Wales is scheduled to commence her sea trials.

the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, and the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Stephen Hillier, have all been hosted on the ship to be briefed on the build progress and how the construction expertise is being shared from ship to ship. According to Booth, “Our guests have been impressed with how our teams are transferring knowledge between the two ships, thanks to the committed and talented people we employ across the programme both in Rosyth and across the UK and in our wider supply chain.”

LfE examples By the beginning of 2017, all of the 52 separate blocks that make up HMS Prince of Wales had been delivered and put into position, with the result that the ship became structurally complete, and the next phase of getting her ready to go to sea could begin. The “drop stern” process exemplifies how LfE can make a difference. This is a very tense and stressful procedure where the weight of the ship is carefully transferred from the build support towers that hold the ship in place whilst she is being built to the keel blocks that hold her in place until she is eventually floated. One of the significant factors of the drop stern practice is that the ship can finally assume the actual shape she will have when afloat,

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Proud to power the nation’s flagships.

MT30 gas turbine We congratulate the Royal Navy on the naming of HMS Prince of Wales.

At over 280 meters long and 65,000 tonnes in weight, the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers will be an inspiring sight. Ensuring these vessels efficiently reach their operating speed will be a formidable task, but one that Rolls-Royce is confidently taking on.

We are also providing other vital equipment including the LV electrical systems, propellers and shaftline, steering gear and stabilisers.

When the Royal Navy requires superlative support, Rolls-Royce is a powerful ally.

Trusted to deliver excellence

CROWN COPYRIGHGT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LA(PHOT) PEPE HOGAN

allowing critical follow-on phases relating to such things as power and propulsion and shaft alignment to be completed. It also enables the build teams to make sure that the hull is in fact watertight. The team in charge of “drop stern” had earlier identified the job as critical to the undocking and power/ propulsion trials. Thanks to their experience on HMS Queen Elizabeth, their forward planning and preparation for completing the process enabled them to complete the task a mere 18 months after the first block arrived in Rosyth in 2014.

Another key lesson relates to the way the two carriers will be supported at sea. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s fleet of tankers are able to refuel warships on the move so that they don’t have to make time-consuming detours into port. The process is known as replenishment at sea (RAS) and entails giant fuel hoses being passed from the tanker to the recipient ship along a cable before being plugged into the ship’s fuel tanks. The socket that the pipe is plugged into is known as a “high point.” In a major success of LfE, the HMS Prince of Wales high points installation team established

HRH, The Prince of Wales, also known as The Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland, gave the nation’s future aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, the royal seal of approval when he visited the ship in Rosyth for the first time and signalled for the final structural section to be lowered into place.

a multi-disciplinary team to handle the task and learn the lessons from HMS Queen Elizabeth. Harry McCluskey, Aircraft Carrier Alliance’s (ACA’s) fwd end ship manager who oversaw the project owing to the fact that the high points were installed on the part of the ship for which he is responsible, was very impressed by the way the job was completed ahead of schedule by the team. In fact, their efforts did not go unnoticed by the ACA Management Board and the team were duly recognised for their exemplary work by the ACA Recognition Scheme.

According to McCluskey, “Everyone has worked towards a common goal, and this has resulted in the high points being pushed earlier in the programme than planned, thanks to all the LfE from

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ATC AT SEA Specialist Air Traffic Control equipment on board HMS Prince of Wales will facilitate the world’s most advanced carrier-based air operations. Jenny Beechener speaks to Senior Air Traffic Controller, Lieutenant Commander David Pickles, to reveal what these capabilities are and what they will enable.

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arrying more aircraft of various types is important to carrier power, but a key advantage of the larger deck area of the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) is the flexibility it brings to flight operations. Not only can the F-35B jets take off and land while aircraft are still parked down the side of the deck, but air traffic control can operate rotary craft at the same time as fixed-wing aircraft.

The extra space also helps the large jets manoeuvre without causing exhaust heat damage. What is remarkable is achieving this without significantly increasing crew size, through the introduction of more capable technology.

Senior Air Traffic Controller, Lt Cdr David Pickles, explains, “Most of the equipment is a step change to what we’ve traditionally had at sea. It is certainly different to what most other nations have, and in a lot of areas is more advanced than we currently have ashore.” The air traffic control displays are split amongst two core areas, delivering complete redundancy. The Carrier Air Traffic Control Centre (CATCC) below decks houses six ATC positions and three tactical control positions, while flight deck operations are controlled from Flying Control (FLYCO): a dedicated facility in the carrier’s aft island equipped with ATC configured tower displays and a reversionary radar position. A reversionary FLYCO is located in the forward tower next to the bridge. “Power supplies and equipment servers are evenly distributed, with multiple layers of redundancy, so that if the ship suffers battle damage in any particular zone, this only affects alternative displays while the other half are powered from a different zone, allowing us to continue delivering an air traffic service.”

A powerful new tool introduced for the first time is the Air Group Management Application (AGMA), a digital planning platform that 46

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collates information about the serviceability status of individual aircraft, aircrew currency, and mission requirements to aid the combat operations team with compilation of the ship’s flying programme, which is then cascaded out from a central database, ensuring that everyone works from the same information.

Any changes become live straight away, enhancing safety and streamlining air traffic control operations.

Controllers also have access to more detailed flight data as a result of the ship’s advanced surveillance radar capability.

Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) aerials are mounted on both the fore and aft towers in a unique development by BAE Systems in partnership with Leonardo, designed to provide overlapping 360-degree coverage that provides controllers with IFF Modes 1, 2, 3/A/C, 4, 5 and S. All the non-tactical controller working positions are designed from an air traffic perspective. The RDS 1600 displays – supplied by BAE Systems under licence from Cobham – provide the identical working

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY

The extra-large deck area of the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers will facilitate a greater rate of fast jet sorties than in the past.

environment to shore-based air bases already using this system across the UK. “Using a familiar system reduces the training requirement,” says Pickles. “We have more capability than the shore-side units, but the displays are the same.” Among additional functions on board, the displays feature worldwide Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (DAFIF) data, re-issued and updated on a monthly basis by the MOD to ensure controllers have the latest global mapping data in front of them.

“Every morning we could wake up in a different part of the world, so it’s important to have the correct airspace on our display to assist in unfamiliar territory.” Controllers can view the coastline anywhere in the world and access the latest aeronautical information on screen.

Additional safety aids can be activated, such as terrain safe altitude, collision avoidance and airspace incursion warnings, designed to help with situational awareness.

A prominent feature is a new integrated arrival management capability that calculates the optimum sequence for aircraft returning to the ship.

Currently designed to help recover the fast jets, the software tool assists the controller by working out when aircraft should leave the holding stack to join the final approach. “We are not reliant on it, but it acts as a backstop to the controller,” says Pickles. “When you have a dozen jets circling around needing to touch down at three-minute intervals, a little bit of

help with the mental arithmetic provides an extra safety buffer.

The deck is a finite space where plus or minus 15 seconds is critical. We have to recover the jets on time, every time, with very little flexibility for us to be able to delay aircraft. If we get it wrong, the pilot may end up going for an unexpected swim.”

F-35 pilots also have access to new guidance systems, including the SPN-41B instrument carrier landing system first developed for the US Navy. The all-weather precision approach guidance system relays azimuth and elevation alignment information using a dedicated radar, directly to the cockpit, much like a shore-based instrument landing system. SPN-41B is due to be installed on HMS Queen Elizabeth to support flight trials during 2018, followed by HMS Prince of Wales.

External and internal communications are the focus of the Tactical Command and Control Voice (TC2V) system supplied by Thales, designed to provide not just ground/ air communications, but also ship-to-shore communications via a single distributed network.

“Traditionally we’ve used separate systems, but now we can talk to anyone, wherever they are, through the same headset,” explains Pickles.

“This gives us the ability to get onto a satellite phone and talk directly to a military or civilian airfield ashore, whilst still

HMS Prince of Wales

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2016 LOCKHEED MARTIN PHOTO BY DARIN RUSSELL

maintaining communications with our aircraft.” The principle the RN is working towards is autonomous radar status, whereby RN controllers could access controlled airspace for some manoeuvres within home territory. “At the moment, we are not allowed to operate in controlled airspace, even though most RN controllers are all qualified to do so,” Pickles says. “Given the amount of airspace needed by the jets, we may need to cross from one military training area to another, or traverse to upper airspace, and we would like to do that under our own steam. For the Civil Aviation Authority to authorise us to do that, we need reliable off-ship communications.”

TC2V is backed up by a robust emergency ground-to-air communications capability supplied by Rohde & Schwarz,

Once operational, HMS Prince of Wales’ flight controllers will be able to handle fast jet and rotary craft operations simultaneously.

which provides up to 60 minutes of failsafe availability in the case of loss of power, including a total electrical failure. This is supporting carrier operations during initial trial stages until the RN operates a fully distributed communications network.

In preparation for the start of sea trials, the RN has installed a Maritime Air Systems Control Simulator (MASCS) to support the training programme at the RN air traffic control centre of excellence at Yeovilton.

Controllers become familiar with flight control, helicopter, or fighter jet operations using the Micro Nav simulation suite, where any one of the 44 simulator positions can be used to replicate the real environment, including dynamic aspects of maritime operations ranging from search and rescue functions and peacetime monitoring to full combat situations. The synthetic training environment extends beyond the shore-based facility to include an on-board simulation suite, consisting of four radar positions identical to those ashore as well as an impressive 3D tower simulator which replicates the FLYCO position. “Traditional training was largely procedure-based, so we’ve broadened the scope so controllers understand not just their safety role but also the contribution they play in a tactical role as well. The synthetic environment allows controllers to train and maintain currency in the absence of any live aircraft,” says Pickles. As controllers start to put the training into practise over the next 18 months, then the real capabilities of the new carriers will start to become apparent.

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HMS PRINCE OF WALES AFFILIATES Simon Michell highlights the mutual benefits of the Royal Navy’s Ship Affiliation tradition.

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I am delighted to announce that HMS Prince of Wales is now formally affiliated with the cities of Bristol and Liverpool, Greenwich Hospital, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, the Welsh Guards, the Royal Lancers and 27 Squadron Royal Air Force.” This official announcement of the first seven affiliates was made by the ship’s senior officer, Captain Ian Groom, as the initial group was hosted by the Royal Navy (RN) at Rosyth dockyard in September 2016 on the ship’s inaugural “Affiliates Day” celebrations. Capt Groom went on to thank the affiliates for attending, saying, “These affiliations signify a major milestone in the life of the ship and mark the beginning of what will be long and fruitful relationships for the next 50 years.”

All major RN ships have affiliations as part of a long tradition that binds their crews to the land via a network of relationships whose tentacles are spread across the United Kingdom from shore to shore.

The first seven affiliates selected for the second-in-class aircraft carrier highlight the range of organisations and establishments that are invited to become part of a ship’s extended family. They can encompass cities, hospital trusts, cadet units, army regiments and air force squadrons, as well as venerable city institutions such as the aforementioned Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.

This 700-year-old institution was, according to its Prime Warden, Mrs Judith Cobham-Lowe, incredibly honoured to be invited to become an affiliate. “For us, it is a way of showing our support and giving us a connection with the great service which the armed forces provide. It also links us with a much larger world beyond the Square Mile. With over 90 percent of the nation’s trade coming and going by sea, this connection is important.”

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HMS Prince of Wales

Affiliation is clearly not a one-way street, as the Prime Warden points out: “The benefits are mutual. Such an affiliation gives the ship and its crew a link to an ancient guild, steeped in an industry which still thrives today, in one of the great financial capitals in the world. It allows the RN’s purpose to be communicated to a wide-ranging and influential group of our members who come from all walks of life.” And, from the other perspective, the Lord Mayor of Bristol highlights one of the benefits he envisages: “By affiliating ourselves with this ship we are also helping to boost Bristol’s image around the world and confirm our status as a city of international importance.”

Since becoming affiliates, the process of establishing the relationships that will thrive over the next half-century has

CROWN COPYRIGHT PHOTO BY L(PHOT) BARRY WHEELER CROWN COPYRIGHT PHOTO BY CORPORAL G MORENZO

Above: 27 Squadron Chinooks will operate from HMS Prince of Wales once she is commissioned and in service, further reinforcing the affiliated bond with the ship. Right: The Welsh Guards are among the first seven affiliates of HMS Prince of Wales.

begun. As the Goldsmiths’ Deputy Clerk, Nick Harland, explains, “We have already invited the senior naval officer, Ian Groom, and liaison officer to various functions at Goldsmiths’ Hall and will be building our relationship through supporting the ship and its crew in a number of ways to assist in meeting their needs which cannot be provided from government funding. Our members have twice been invited to visit the ship (in build), and we hope that once she is at sea there will be opportunities for members to sail with her to experience life at sea.” Likewise, the city affiliates, Bristol and Liverpool, are both anticipating huge crowds when the ship visits them in appreciation of their affiliation.

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At more than £6 billion, the programme to build the two Queen Elizabeth-class carriers is one of Europe’s largest defence projects involving almost every region of the United Kingdom. Simon Michell explains who is responsible for delivering the Royal Navy’s largest-ever ships.

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esigning and building aircraft carriers is one of the most complex processes any navy will ever undertake. The sums of money involved are considerable and the political intricacies that have to be navigated can be correspondingly complex and time consuming. It is consequently not unusual for the period between a government calling for an aircraft carrier replacement and the vessel actually entering service to span well over 20 years. And, with a planned 52

HMS Prince of Wales

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LA(PHOT) PEPE HOGAN, LA(PHOT) STEVIE BURKE

MADE IN BRITAIN

service lifetime of almost half a century, decisions made at the beginning of the process have to account for the vagaries of a changing geopolitical, technological, and industrial climate. Building an aircraft carrier is one thing, keeping it maintained and seaworthy for 50 years is yet another.

Not many countries are in a position to build their own aircraft carrier. An industrial endeavour on this scale requires highly advanced technical expertise allied to the appropriate dockyard infrastructure.

A huge number of associated skills and qualified engineers and technicians has to be brought into play via a complex and often confusing supply chain matrix. It is no surprise then that there are more than 10,000 personnel engaged in the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) programme, with some 2,500 engineering jobs directly created in order to be able to fulfil the contract.

PHOTO BY JOHN LINTON

Opposite page: HRH, The Prince of Wales, also known as The Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland, gave the nation’s future aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, the royal seal of approval when he visited the ship in Rosyth for the first time and signalled for the final structural section to be lowered into place. Right: Building HMS Prince of Wales has involved more than 10,000 technicians and engineers. Below: The Goliath Crane at Rosyth Naval Dockyard lifts the bow section of the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier. The 65,000-tonne Queen Elizabeth-class carriers will be the centrepiece of the UK’s military capability.

This industrial footprint covers the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, with almost every region participating in the manufacture of the vessels. Not only is it creating jobs, it is also helping to train the next generation of engineers, as some 800 apprentices have been put to work on the project.

PHOTO BY DREW FARRELL

The hull and superstructure Having selected BAE Systems as prime contractor together with Thales UK as the main supplier back in 2003, the programme began to take shape in earnest. Since then, a partnership to deliver the carriers has evolved in the form of the BAE Systems-led Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), the other members of which are Babcock, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Thales UK. In their own words, “The ACA is an innovative alliance between industry and the Ministry of Defence that was founded to transform the way in which large-scale projects such as the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers are produced and ultimately delivered.” Right from the beginning, the ACA underlined the need for a partnership approach, declaring, “The QE class is one of the largest engineering projects

currently being undertaken in the UK and as such it was going to take more than one organisation to deliver it.” Building aircraft carriers is all about partnerships – domestic and international.

Each member of the ACA has a specific role to play. The MoD wears two hats as both an Alliance member and the customer who signs off all the cheques. As well as helping to build the ships at its dockyards, BAE Systems is also responsible for delivering the mission systems for both carriers. Thales UK was instrumental in the design of the ships, supplies electronic systems and software, and leads the Power and Propulsion Sub Alliance. Babcock, a supplier of engineering and support services, builds parts of the ships – including the bow section and some of the sponsons (structures that jut out from the side of the hull). Additionally, the company assembled HMS Queen Elizabeth at its Rosyth dockyard, where it also carried out the final stages of assembling her sister carrier – HMS Prince of Wales – prior to her Naming Ceremony on Sept. 8, 2017.

The immense size of the ships dictated that they were constructed in modular sections at a number of different dockyards prior to final assembly at Babcock’s Rosyth facility on the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

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HMS Prince of Wales is so large that she was built in sections in six UK dockyards. Here the aft island is lifted into place.

In all, six dockyards built the modules: Appledore (Babcock in Devon), Birkenhead (Cammell Laird in Merseyside), Glasgow (BAE Systems at Govan and Scotstoun), Hebburn (A&P in Tyneside), Portsmouth (BAE Systems in Hampshire) and Rosyth (Babcock in Fife).

AIRCRAFT CARRIER ALLIANCE PHOTO BY JOHN LINTON

Power and propulsion Another partnership was formed to deliver propulsion to move the ships forward and to supply power for the on-board electrical systems whilst the ships are at sea and at home in Portsmouth. Thales UK leads the Power and Propulsion Sub Alliance, whose members include GE, L3, and RollsRoyce. Locomotion and power supply are generated via two Rolls-Royce MT30 engines built in Bristol. These are derived from the highly popular Trent 800 aircraft power plant as seen on the Boeing 777. The low voltage electrical power distribution system that supplies

power at various different voltages to the on-board systems was designed and manufactured at Rolls-Royce’s Portsmouth facility. The UK-sourced engines are supplemented by four Wärtsilä power packs from Finland.

Among other things, GE supplied the shore-based rotary frequency converter that enables the National Grid to supply 60Hz power to the ships at berth, thus reducing noise, pollution, and costs. GE also designed, built, and installed the vital Electrical Power Control and Management System on board HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth. For its part, L3 supplied the Integrated Platform Management System from its MAPPS facilities in Bristol, Burgess Hill, and Barrow-in-Furness. This system is key for keeping the crew numbers down as it helps watch-keeping and damage control teams to operate more efficiently.

It goes without saying that the most critical component for building the two carriers is steel – 40,000 tonnes each. Tata produced the metal from UK mills to supply 94 percent of the required amounts. However, this is no ordinary alloy. Tata metallurgists developed three new grades of extra strong lightweight steel (FH36, EH46, and Install® Plus), resulting in a warship that is more agile in the water and cheaper to run.

The entire process of building the two QEC carriers has touched almost every region in Britain. More than 200 direct suppliers have been involved from England, Scotland, and Wales. Many more companies have been subcontracted to supply products and services. Firms as far apart as William Johnston & Co in Inverness to Pipex Ltd in Plymouth have all contributed to this mammoth effort. Along the way, innovations and new inventions have emerged that will enhance future build programmes.

That said, the building of the ships is just one element of the project.

The upgrade of Portsmouth harbour has involved another set of specialist firms and technicians. UK contractors are also heavily involved in the manufacture of the F-35 Lightning that the ships are being built to host.

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FROM THE FLIGHT DECK TO THE ENGINE ROOM As one of a pair of the largest and most powerful surface warships ever built for the Royal Navy, HMS Prince of Wales’ dimensions are truly staggering. David Hayhurst reveals the immense scale and ingenuity of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

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isplacing 65,000 tonnes – three times that of the Invincible-class carriers – and at 280 metres long and 70 metres wide, HM Ships Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales represent a major leap forward in terms of the UK’s joint military capability.

Remarkably for its sheer scale, HMS Prince of Wales only has a total crew of 714 sailors, compared to around 3,200 for a Nimitz-class carrier of the US Navy. This will only rise to a full carrier complement of approximately 1,600 when all air elements are embarked (approximately 900 flight crew and Royal Marines). This dramatic reduction in crew numbers is made possible by the revolutionary innovations in weapons-handling automation, as well as other state-of-the-art systems found throughout the carriers.

Hangar deck The Prince of Wales’ cavernous hangar deck (155 x 35 metres and 6.7 to 10 metres high) is as large as 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools and can accommodate two squadrons of F-35B aircraft. At surge capacity, the ship can accommodate 40 aircraft: 36 F-35B Lightnings and four helicopters. A critical feature is the ship’s ability to operate a variety of helicopters in Britain’s military arsenal, from twin-rotor Chinooks to Merlins, Apaches, and Wildcats.

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HMS Prince of Wales

In addition to a joint strike force of up to 36 Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (RN) F-35Bs, an air wing will likely be composed of a maritime force protection package of nine anti-submarine Merlin HM.2s, along with four or five Merlin CROWSNEST airborne early warning and control helicopters. Alternatively, a littoral manoeuvre (coastal) operation could include a mix of Army Air Corps Apaches and RAF Chinooks, as well as RN Merlin HC.4 and Wildcat helicopters, as required. Under such circumstances, HMS Prince of Wales would also likely carry at least one F-35B squadron of 12 aircraft to provide air defence and support to the helicopter assault activities.

This ability to provide such a variety of aircraft packages clearly adds enormously to the range of tasks the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) carriers will be able to fulfil. It will enable them to play a vital role in peacekeeping, humanitarian, and disaster relief operations anywhere in the world, in addition to amphibious

CROWN COPYRIGHT, PHOTO BY PHOTUSER

Right: HMS Queen Elizabeth on sea trials. The crew of HMS Prince of Wales could play four football matches simultaneously on the vast flight deck. Below: A view of the vast hangar deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth. The QEC carriers can fit two squadrons of F-35B Lightnings in their hangar decks.

warfare and other military operations. A boost for this diverse capability came in early 2017 when the Ministry of Defence awarded a £269 million contract to Lockheed Martin UK to develop, manufacture, and provide spares for 10 CROWSNEST maritime surveillance suites that can be fitted into any Merlin HM.2 helicopter. This new CROWSNEST system includes a development of the Thales Searchwater radar that equips the highly successful RN Sea King Mk7 helicopters that currently deliver the Navy’s airborne surveillance and control role.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY PO PHOT RAY JONES

Flight deck Two large lifts from the hangars to the flight deck provide greatly improved manoeuvring space. Each lift can move two Lightning-sized aircraft from the hangar to the flight deck in only 60 seconds, and are powerful enough to lift the entire ship’s crew.

The Prince of Wales’ enormous flight deck covers more than 4 acres, permitting re-arming and refuelling to be accomplished much faster than in earlier-generation carriers. This enables a much higher sortie generation rate – 110 per flying day – than

ever possible with smaller carriers. The deck has been designed with optimal flexibility firmly in mind, and can be marked out for the operation of 10 medium-sized helicopters at once, permitting a singlegroup lift of up to 250 troops – the equivalent of a company.

Another highly innovative feature is that, unlike most modern large carriers, she has not been fitted with catapults and arrestor wires, and is instead designed to operate V/STOL (vertical and/or short take-off and landing) aircraft such as the F-35B. Moreover, F-35Bs will be able to land in what is known as a shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) procedure. The SRVL technique is presently under development for use with the F-35B when it enters service with the Royal Navy before the end of the decade. It permits what appear to be conventional horizontal rather than vertical descents onto the deck by combining vertical thrust from the jet engine and lift from the wings. This ingenious development will maximise the fuel supply and payload an aircraft can return with and will avoid any need to dump expensive weaponry into the sea as would be the case in a standard hover-type landing. There are other benefits to this innovative technique. For example, the wear and tear on the F-35B lift fans is decreased as is the amount of damage done to the flight deck during a vertical landing where the hot jet exhaust is pointed directly onto the flight deck.

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AIRCRAFT CARRIER ALLIANCE PHOTO CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LPHOT IGGY ROBERTS

Another major design innovation in the QEC carriers is the twin flight deck islands.

Instead of a single-island superstructure containing both the ship’s navigation bridge and flying control (FLYCO) centres, these operations have been divided between two structures, with the forward island for navigation and other on-board operations, and with the aft island reserved for aerial operations. Not only does this increase total flight deck area, but the aft FLYCO island will also be optimally positioned to monitor aircraft approaches and deck landings.

Having two islands also means airflow over the flight deck is more stable, boosting operational safety.

Rolls-Royce engines In terms of propulsion, the Royal Navy has eschewed nuclear-powered engines in favour of a revolutionary integrated system, which will include the most powerful marine gas turbine system ever built. Two 48,000hp Rolls-Royce Marine MT30 gas turbine alternators provide more than 70MW of power, coupled with two 15,000hp and two 12,000hp Wärtsilä 38 marine diesel generators, providing an additional 40MW – enough combined energy to power a medium-sized town. The Wärtsilä generators generate sufficient electrical power to drive the ship at cruise speeds, with the MT30 turbines employed when higher speeds are required.

Should they require replacing,

the engines can be easily removed from the vessel, even on deployment, eliminating the need for extensive maintenance.

Lastly, HMS Prince of Wales has two bronze propellers, each 3.1 metres high, 6.7 metres in diameter, and weighing 33 tonnes. Together, they can output some 80MW of power – enough to run 1,000 family cars or 50 highspeed trains.

Top: HMS Prince of Wales’ electric induction motors drive two shafts ending in two propellers that are 6.7 metres in diameter and weigh a combined 66 tonnes. Above: Leading Engineer Technician Umar Hadaway applies power to the props from HMS Queen Elizabeth’s ship’s control centre (SCC) under instruction from the Marine Engineering Officer during the ship’s basin trial. The QEC carriers are powered by two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine alternators and four Wärtsilä marine diesel generators to drive their four electric induction motors.

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CG image Aircraft Carrier Alliance Prince of Wales Crest Jim Sweeney

Key facts about the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers

Both ship’s two propellers weigh 33 tonnes each – nearly two and a half times as heavy as a double decker bus and one and a half times as high.

The Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers will be the largest surface warships ever constructed for the Royal Navy.

Each of the two huge aircraft lifts can move two F-35B aircraft from the hangar to the flight deck in 60 seconds. They’re so powerful that together they could lift the entire ship’s crew.

The ships will be 65,000 tonnes at full displacement • Length: 280 metres • Width: 70 metres QEC carriers are nearly as wide as the USS Nimitz-class supercarrier, and nearly as long as Canary Wharf.

The ships measure 56 metres from keel to masthead, which is four metres taller than Niagara Falls!

Range: 8,000 to 10,000 nautical miles.

The distribution network on board will generate enough energy to power 300,000 kettles or 5,500 family homes (a town the size of Swindon).

1.5 million metres2 of paintwork, which is 370 acres or slightly more than the acreage of Hyde Park.

The water treatment plant on board will produce more than 500 tonnes of fresh water daily.

Forward Island facts The navigation bridge is positioned on Four Deck.

It has deck-to-deckhead windows, which are up to 2 metres tall, ensuring a level of visibility far beyond previous aircraft carriers. There are 37 windows, which are over 40mm thick and weigh 8 tonnes in total, enabling them to withstand a significant impact.

The observation bridge is positioned one deck below.

The fog horn is installed on Six Deck. At 146 decibels, it is louder than a rock concert and can be heard over 2 miles away. This means that if HMS Queen Elizabeth sounded her fog horn from her jetty in HM Naval Base Portsmouth, Pompey supporters in Fratton Park would be able to hear it.

Complement: 714 people (up to 1,600 with embarked air group).

Power: 2 x Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines and 4 x diesel generator sets giving a total installed power of 110MW.

Aircraft: 12 F-35B Lightning aircraft will be routinely embarked for operations, with the capacity to deploy a Tailored Air Group of up to 40 aircraft: The aircraft the ship will operate include the F-35B Lightning, Merlin CROWSNEST, Merlin Mk2 ASW, Merlin Mk4 troop lift, Wildcat, Apache and/or Chinook helicopters.

Weapons: Designed to receive the latest generation of the Phalanx close-in weapon system for defence of the vessel.

Each ship is also designed to receive 30mm guns and mini-guns located to counter asymmetric threats.

110MW power station on board each ship – that’s enough to provide all of Portsea Island with power.

The anchors are 3.1 metres high, each weighing 13 tonnes – almost as much as a double decker bus.

Room for 250 Royal Marines.

The Aircraft Visual Landing Aid is located toward the rear of the forward island to assist aircraft locating the runway.

The long-range radar is installed at the very top of the forward island.

It is the size of a large mobile home and able to track 1,000 targets up to 400km away. Alongside this will sit the satellite communication antenna.

The navigation radars are located one deck farther down, directly above the navigation bridge.

The three engine exhausts are up to 2.6 metres in diameter and are located at the top of the forward Island to expel exhaust from the diesel generator and gas turbines at the carrier’s highest point.

WHY AIRCRAFT CARRIERS? The diplomatic, military and societal benefits that aircraft carriers offer has led to ever more nations developing their own carrier capabilities with a result that the early 21st century has become a boom-time for aircraft carrier manufacturing, Simon Michell explains.

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ver 200 years ago in 1806, Lord Thomas Cochrane became the first naval commander to engage in seaborne air power when he launched kites from his ship, HMS Pallas, in order to drop leaflets on the French during the Napoleonic War. These leaflets were designed to dissuade the French from supporting the war against Great Britain. It was a classic early example of what is now termed an “influence� operation. It is also a clear indication that the Royal Navy had begun to recognise the value of combining the freedom of mobility of a ship with the extra reach of an airborne platform.

When powered aircraft were bestowed with an ability to

PHOTO BY AIRWOLFHOUND FROM HERTFORDSHIRE, UK

Left: Seven Sopwith Camels on the flight deck of HMS Furious on the way to bomb the German Zeppelin base at Tondern, July 1918.

Below: The United Kingdom has been at the forefront of aircraft carrier operations since the earliest of days and re-enters the carrier club with the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) carriers.

take off and land on water, it was the French who were the first to put aircraft to sea on their naval vessel, La Foudre, in 1911. This was not strictly an aircraft carrier as we know it today as the planes had to be winched into the water to take off. However, from that moment on the aircraft carrier concept was born, and on the other side of the Atlantic, the Americans had become convinced of the benefits of the aircraft carrier principle and were consequently experimenting with a range of seaborne aviation concepts.

They can boast of being the first to actually fly an aircraft off a ship, when Eugene Burton Ely, an Iowa-born civilian pilot, sped off down an 80ft wooden decking erected on the US Navy cruiser USS Birmingham in his Curtiss pusher aircraft. He then did the reverse two months later by landing on the USS Pennsylvania as it was anchored in San Francisco Bay. The Royal Navy, however, took the concept a step further in 1912 when Lieutenant Charles Samson flew his Shorts S27 plane off HMS London whilst it was actually moving.

It was the struggle to land a plane on a moving ship that placed the Royal Navy at the forefront of this most complex military endeavour with the design of the first ever real

aircraft carrier capable of both launching and retrieving aircraft on its deck – HMS Argus.

By the start of the First World War the aircraft carrier had come into its own and was put to use as an offensive weapon with raids on German Zeppelin bases in Cuxhaven and Tondern – thus proving the concept of a carrier strike capability. From then on, the strike and reconnaissance capability of seaborne aircraft was put to further use in the hunt for German submarines, which were to pose an almost mortal threat to the United Kingdom in the next world war.

It was during the Second World War (WWII), that the Royal Navy carrier strike capability came into its own with what has gone down in history as the first all-aircraft attack against enemy warships in the Battle of Taranto on Nov. 11, 1940. Royal Navy pilots, dropping torpedoes, flares and bombs from their Fairey Swordfish biplanes, were able to deliver such a severe mauling to the Italian fleet that it was forced to leave a vital area of operations in the Mediterranean and seek refuge in the port of Naples. Once the attack had finished, the Commander-inChief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Cunningham, observed that the Royal Navy aviators of the Fleet Air Arm had become the RN’s “most devastating weapon.” Not only did these men bring about the end of the era of the”big gun ship,” the Japanese Imperial Navy also used the Battle of Taranto as a blueprint for their ill-judged aircraft carrier assault on Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7, 1941.

After the end of WWII the Royal Navy maintained its supremacy in the carrier strike field when Lieutenant Eric “Winkle” Brown landed an adapted de Havilland Vampire jet aircraft onto HMS Ocean on Dec. 3, 1945 – the first man to achieve this feat. He subsequently went on to become the first man to land a twin-engine jet aircraft onto a carrier as well.

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Photo: Courtesy Babcock International Group

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Like the UK, France has pioneered the use of carrierborne aircraft and currently deploys the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

CROWN COPYRIGHT, PHOTO BY LA(PHOT) SIMMO SIMPSON

Flexibility versus specialisation Although most advanced navies now operate vessels that are designed to be flexible so that they can undertake a variety of roles across maritime security, disaster relief and war-fighting tasks, each different type of surface ship, particularly in the Royal Navy, still has a core capability at the heart of its design. For example, the Royal Navy has a mix of ships in its fleet, including the Sandown- and Hunt-class mine hunters, which specialise in the complex mission of detecting and neutralising water-borne mines that are planted in the water to constrain ship manoeuvrability and/or destroy enemy shipping – be it combat or commercial.

They often operate in coordination with survey ships like HM Ships Echo and Enterprise that are equipped with advanced oceanographic and bathymetric sensors to examine the water itself and the seabed and produce and update survey charts. This serves to guarantee that there are no unseen dangers beneath the waves and ensure the safety of shipping transiting shallow and deep waters. Their usefulness for other tasks was highlighted when HMS Echo joined the search for the Malaysian Airlines MH370 flight recorder in April 2014.

The RN also operates the red-painted ship HMS Protector as a replacement for the ill-fated HMS Endurance, which was sent for scrap in 2016.

HMS Protector patrols the cold Southern Ocean in support of science expeditions and keeps a watchful eye on those ships and people in the British Antarctic Territory to make sure that international treaty obligations are being adhered to. Other environmental duties are pursued by the original River-class patrol boats Clyde, Mersey, Severn, and Tyne that police British and European waters to enforce the laws related to commercial fishing. These ships are kept very busy, and in order to

lessen the burden, a further five River-class ships were ordered – three in 2013 (Forth, Medway and Trent) and a further two (Tamar and Spey) in 2016.

These more capable vessels will be assigned to help out with counter-terrorism, anti-immigration, anti-smuggling and more general maritime security operations.

On a more warlike footing, there are the 13 Type 23 Duke-class frigates that will be replaced from 2021 onwards with eight Type 26 anti-submarine frigates and five Type 31 general purpose frigates, with work on the Type 26 warships starting in Scotland in the latter half of 2017. Frigates are the workhorses of the RN, but with a specialisation in anti-submarine warfare, thanks to the Thales 2087 sonar that is towed in the water from the stern of the ship. Destroyers also have a specialisation, and that is air defence. The six new Type 45

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CROWN COPYRIGHT, PHOTO BY L(PHOT) DAVE JENKINS

Daring-class destroyers have the world-beating BAE Systems Sampson radar that can track an object the size of a tennis ball as it travels at three times the speed of sound.

All these ships can carry out influence and deterrent roles through their mere presence as well as humanitarian, counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism tasks. The destroyers and frigates will also form up with task groups that are prosecuting expeditionary operations. These are known in military parlance as amphibious operations, meaning that the mission has both a seaborne and land element to it, with the land element being an assault onshore. To undertake these missions the RN has bespoke assault ships, Albion and Bulwark, that have internal docks allowing them to launch hovercraft and conventional landing craft full of Royal Marine Commandos.

These expeditionary missions also require a range of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Although most of the ships listed have a flat deck at the rear that can launch a single helicopter – more in the case of the Albion and Bulwark – in order to get a lot of men and equipment onshore quickly you need larger landing decks which are delivered by the flat-top aircraft carriers. To this end, the Royal Navy has two types of carriers – helicopter and fast jet. Helicopter carriers, like the RN’s HMS Ocean focus on rotary-wing operations, with a range of helicopters designed to transport men and equipment, attack land targets, hunt submarines and undertake surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.

The other type of carrier has all the air traffic management equipment, landing strip and flight management teams necessary to launch and land fast jets. These ships represent the very pinnacle of maritime capability as the technology, training and experience required to operate jets from ships has up until now been shared by a very small group of nations – Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Spain, Russia, Thailand, the UK and the United States (US).

Not all of these nations had the industrial know-how to build their own carriers, as Brazil, China and India’s first aircraft carriers were acquired second-hand from France (Clemenceau-class operated by the Brazilian navy), Russia/Ukraine (China and India both have bought former Soviet navy carriers) and the UK (India acquired a refitted HMS Hermes from the Royal Navy). Thailand is an exception in that the nation commissioned a new-build vessel from the Spanish Bazán (now Navantia) shipyard.

Consequently, with Japan being taken out of the fixed-wing aircraft carrier group of nations after WWII, the traditional carrier nations capable of building their own ships have, up until recently, been Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia/Soviet Union, Spain and the US. The United Kingdom therefore, is one of only a handful of nations that has been producing and operating these mammoth ships since their very inception.

The UK can be proud of its pioneering role in this industry and its ability to remain a major player in this exclusive manufacturing fraternity. The RN has

PHOTO BY LA PHOT AMANDA REYNOLDS

Above: Fleet Air Arm FA.2 Sea Harriers saw operations off the Invincible-class carriers that the Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth replace. Below: In a show of force, Russia sent its aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov to the Mediterranean Sea in support of the Syrian government.

PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS SEAN M. CASTELLANO

April 2017 saw the American Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson steam for North Korea as tensions rose in the region.

introduced many of the innovations that have made operating ships at sea safer and more efficient, such as the mirror landing system and the angled deck – two innovations that were eagerly adopted by the US Navy. The Prince of Wales, which is being named in the ceremony that this publication celebrates, is another example of the UK pushing out the boundaries of its technological expertise as the QE-class (QEC) ships are the largest aircraft carriers the UK has ever put to sea. They will also contain very high levels of automation that will reduce crew numbers significantly – something that the US Navy is looking at with a great deal of interest.

However, the number of nations now engaged in their own domestically designed and built fixed-wing carriers is expanding. Brazil, China and India have all instigated their own fast-jet carrier programmes with Japan and South Korea capable of building and currently planning helicopter carriers. The Indian Ocean is therefore, rapidly becoming host to a build-up of advanced naval forces with the carrier seen as the must-have capability. As nations develop their technology and generate sufficient budgets to expand their military maritime reach, the aircraft carrier is seen as the most efficient way of projecting power overseas and engaging targets many hundreds of miles inland.

RN aircraft carrier operations The quick answer to the question “Why Carriers?” is the most simple.

The aircraft carrier represents sovereign territory from which a nation can engage another without the need to get permission to fly through a third-party nation’s airspace. The aircraft carrier is also capable of transiting the globe, making almost every other nation accessible to its aircraft. This freedom of action and long-range reach is essential for any state that wishes to project credible power globally.

One could be forgiven for thinking that the aircraft carrier had its heyday by the end of WWII, and that since then it has gone the way of the big gun battleship. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth as, since 1945, the aircraft carrier has continued to prove its worth for the Royal Navy and the UK government on a regular and frequent basis.

The most obvious and high-profile occasion was Operation Corporate to retake the Falkland Islands from the Argentinians. This decisive 1982 campaign not only provided numerous lessons for the current navy and other partner nations, it also re-instilled a confidence in the UK that Great Britain could meet its obligations to defend British citizens, no matter how far away they were.

The carrier task force and its organic aircraft on board the veteran Centaur-class HMS Hermes and newer Invincible carriers were essential, as any other plan – such as an airborne assault – would have been far too risky to attempt even if a way could have been found to implement it.

After Iraqi forces were ejected from Kuwait in 1991 by a US-led coalition, RN carriers participated in Operation Southern Watch over Iraq to enforce no-fly zones. The FA.2 Sea Harriers flying off RN carriers were extremely active in the effort to prevent the persecution of the Marsh Arabs in the Southern tip of Iraq. The second Gulf War would see a classic amphibious assault in which Royal Marines were ferried off US aircraft carriers to take the strategic port of Basra and its surrounding hinterland.

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During the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the three Invincible-class carriers, Ark Royal, Illustrious and Invincible, all participated in enforcing the no-fly zones as part of the NATO/ UN Operation Deny Flight and the subsequent Operation Deliberate Force between 1993 and 1995. These were the first military engagements for NATO and proved that the Alliance had successfully refocused its posture from an ostensibly Cold War defensive force into one that could project power and bring sufficient influence to bear on warring groups to force them to seek alternative means of achieving their political aims through the Dayton Accords.

This operation saw the introduction of the improved FA.2 Sea Harrier equipped with a more powerful engine, the Blue Vixen radar, the AIM-120 air-to-air missile and a range of land attack munitions, making it one of the most effective air-defence fighters in the British order of battle.

In an all-UK effort to support the government of Sierra Leone, a Carrier Task Force consisting of the fixed-wing aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, HMS Argyll and submarine protection was despatched to the West African state as part of Operation Palliser to evacuate civilians from Lungi airport. Between them, the two carriers transported a military force of around 600 Royal Marines together with their equipment to reinforce the soldiers from the British Army’s Parachute Regiment who had been flown in previously.

When five British soldiers were held by a militia group in Sierra Leone in 2000, HMS Illustrious was despatched to the West African state with a deckload of Harriers and Sea Harriers.

This intervention later saw the rescue of British soldiers who had been captured by the notorious paramilitary group, the West Side Boys (WSB). The subsequent destruction of the WSB was a major factor in bringing peace to the war-torn country.

Since that operation, HMS Illustrious has participated in another massive evacuation of civilians. When the war in Lebanon flared up again in 2006 the RN put together a task force to rescue British and other entitled personnel (EPs). In what must go down as one of the largest evacuations since Dunkirk more than 4,500 EPs were brought to safety in just six days, a mere seven days after the operation itself had been ordered.

The fast-jet aircraft carrier is a complex defence system that not every nation can afford, let alone operate. However, for those countries with global responsibilities such as the United Kingdom, there is nothing that has a comparable broad utility. The United Kingdom has turned to the aircraft carrier on numerous occasions and in such an uncertain and unstable world will doubtlessly do so again.

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WHY ARE BIG DECK CARRIERS BETTER? In terms of Carrier Strike operations, size matters, writes Norman Friedman.

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AIRCRAFT CARRIER ALLIANCE IMAGE

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ith HM Ships Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy is replacing three Invincible-class Harrier carriers with two ships, each of which is about three times as large as the earlier ships.

Size always seems expensive. Why go up in size? What does a large carrier offer that a smaller one doesn’t? Experience shows that larger carriers are well worth their price.

There are three parts to the argument. One is about how effectively the carrier can support a fleet, which largely means how effectively she can operate her aircraft. A second is about how the carrier functions at sea, particularly in bad weather. A third is economic: How much does the Ministry of Defence pay, not per carrier, but per aeroplane or per sortie?

Each tells much the same story: A few big carriers buy a lot more than an equivalent number of smaller ones. That is as true now as it has been since the beginning of carrier aviation.

The Invincible class accommodated about 12 Sea Harriers, although they were designed for five (plus five helicopters), and with that they were fairly crowded.

The new Queen Elizabeth class (QEC) is designed for up to three times as many

A computer-generated image shows HMS Prince of Wales alongside an Invincible-class aircraft carrier.

defending with the best available weapons. Dealing with them will require a combination of individual aircraft performance and numbers.

AIRCRAFT CARRIER ALLIANCE IMAGE

The alpha strike F-35B Lightning strike fighters.

Experience with previous large carriers suggests that she can probably accommodate many more in much the same way the Invincibles shoehorned in more Sea Harriers. On this basis, the two QEC carriers can accommodate something like twice as many aircraft as the three Invincible class. Even that largely understates the advantage of the larger ship, because each F-35B is considerably larger than a Sea Harrier, and has much better performance.

This is the crudest measure of the advantage of a larger ship. In all kinds of warfare, numbers count. In naval air strike warfare, it may be sheer numbers of aircraft or it may be the number of separate targets a ship can strike each day, to achieve the desired effect.

By both measures, the much larger air group on board a QEC carrier offers much more than the air group on board the much smaller Invincible.

The carrier exists to support fleet operations – to attack targets, mostly ashore, and to help protect the fleet against enemy attack, particularly air attack. One reason the British government bought the two new carriers was because it could envisage situations in which it would be essential for British aircraft to strike defended targets. Some of the targets are surely going to be important enough to be worth

In the past, attack aircraft generally struck a single target en masse, the idea being that many aircraft arriving together could saturate even sophisticated defences. The more aircraft that arrived together, the better the chance that the defence could not handle all of them. “More” generally meant more than twenty at a time. The US Navy called a mass attack an “alpha strike” and it sought to concentrate enough strike aircraft on board a single carrier to make such an attack effective. Current US tactics, and probably the tactics of the force on board HMS Prince of Wales, emphasise standoff attacks using precision weapons. If the attacker can strike from beyond the range of the target’s defences, then mass is unnecessary. Since the weapons are guided to specific points using GPS, a single aircraft can hit multiple targets per sortie.

The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are almost four times larger than the Invincible-class carriers.

The hangar of a Queen Elizabeth-class carrier can hold up to 24 F-35B Lightnings, and is itself nearly as large as an Invincible class.

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First-in-class of the QEC HMS Queen Elizabeth during sea trials in summer 2017. One of the constraints of the Invincible-class carriers was the narrow width of the flight deck, which affected aircraft operations. The very wide flight deck of the QEC is obvious in this image.

Thus, one can reckon effectiveness in terms of how many separate targets a carrier and her aircraft can hit each day.

The more targets struck, the greater the effect of the ship.

Even with fewer aircraft on board, a ship with a large flight deck can rearm and refuel aircraft much more quickly, and thus can deal with the maximum possible number of targets. The more crowded the flight deck, the slower the turn-around of each aircraft.

That is right now. The requirement for standoff range is set by the missiles the enemy’s air defences wield. That said, the F-35B is a stealthy aircraft. Its design should reduce the effective range of enemy defences.

However, over time stealth is likely to lose some of its value as enemies develop new radars and signal processors.

The day of the alpha strike is probably not entirely over. The point of the alpha strike is that it sets a minimum number of strike aircraft to achieve some necessary results. The smaller the carrier, the fewer aircraft it supports, and the worse the chance that it can do what is needed, no matter the skill

and professionalism of its crew and aviators. The smaller the carrier, the more her very size restricts the performance of the aircraft she supports.

The three Invincible-class light carriers, which the QEC will replace, operated small and relatively low-performance Sea Harriers. As fighters, the Sea Harriers could make up for much of their performance deficit by carrying extremely effective air-to-air missiles backed by excellent radar and fire control. None of that helped in the strike role; the Sea Harrier could make up for its relatively poor performance by using standoff weapons. It is not difficult to imagine a future in which that would not be enough. At the very least, aircraft performance includes the ability to lift weight, and that in turn sets the performance of whatever standoff weapons the aircraft carries.

The F-35B planned for the new carriers is far more effective than the Sea Harrier, particularly in the attack role. It carries much more weight, and it flies much faster and much farther, among other advantages. It is also a much more complicated aircraft, which means that to keep it flying requires more equipment and more qualified personnel. Achieving the considerably better performance requires a much larger and heavier aircraft. A carrier accommodating as many F-35Bs as the Invincible class had space for Sea Harriers would be far larger, perhaps even twice as large.

Size versus survivability Unlike any other kind of warship, a carrier can strike again and again, as long as she can take on board weapons, fuel, and spare parts for

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her aircraft and as long as the aircraft themselves survive (her strike aircraft might be thought of as reusable missiles). The larger the carrier, the more easily she can be replenished at sea. Size also offers her greater capacity, so that she does not have to be resupplied as often. That affects both the effectiveness of the carrier and her vulnerability. Resupply takes time. Because a carrier is at her most vulnerable when she is taking on fuel and ammunition, she typically withdraws from her station for that function.

Much of the time lost during resupply is time spent steaming away and returning. The smaller the carrier, the more time she loses and the less she gets out of her aircraft. Moreover, resupply is when the carrier is most vulnerable to attack, for example by submarine. Of 74

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course, if a carrier is worth building and operating, she is also worth attacking. A larger well-designed ship is likely to survive damage that will sink or disable a well-designed smaller one. Naval architects calculate survivability in terms of the size (mainly length) of the damage weapons will inflict. The smaller the proportion of a ship that length covers, the better the chance that the ship can survive the damage and, ideally, keep on fighting. It takes sheer size to provide enough protection against all the weapons likely to be used against a carrier, from bombs to cruise missiles to torpedoes. Experience suggests that large carriers can be remarkably tough.

During the Cold War, the US Navy argued successfully that it was better to build larger than smaller carriers because only the larger ones were more likely to survive. The proofs of survivability were the survival of several carriers in the face of Kamikaze attacks (in effect, cruise missile hits) and the later survival of carriers despite flight deck and even hangar deck fires. Royal Navy experience both in war and in peacetime supports much the same conclusions. The larger the carrier, the better she can be designed to survive.

The carrier does not act alone. She is the attacking core of a fleet, much of which is intended to support her. For example, HMS Prince of Wales will be escorted by Type 45 destroyers and Type 23 frigates intended to beat off air and submarine attacks. She will probably be supported by at least one attack submarine armed with, among other

PHOTO BY AIRWOLFHOUND FROM HERTFORDSHIRE, UK

PHOTO BY LA PHOT AMANDA REYNOLDS

The F-35B is larger and has a longer range than the Sea Harriers and Harriers that flew off the invincible-class aircraft carriers.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO

While HMS Invincible was able to follow the good weather in the Adriatic Sea to keep air sorties on the go during the NATO intervention in Kosovo, her operations were constrained by the limited range of the Sea Harrier.

things, Tomahawk missiles.

One important submarine role will be to use those missiles to reduce enemy air defences so that the carrier’s strike aircraft can operate more or less unimpeded.

It is often forgotten that the size (and cost) of the attending force does not depend on the size of the carrier. If the striking force on board the carrier is split among several smaller carriers, then either each of them needs its own consorts, or the multiple carriers must operate together. It might be argued that splitting up a carrier force would make it more difficult for an enemy to deal with all of it at once – but the price paid in escorting ships would be high. Concentrating several smaller carriers in one group, with one set of escorts, raises issues of mutual interference. Each of the smaller carriers in the group is less survivable than a single larger ship. In the past, the issue of whether to operate carriers singly or in tight groups was often debated. Recent experience suggests that a solitary carrier with escorts works best, particularly if the ship is constantly launching and recovering aircraft. It was easier to group carriers when each one launched single massive air strikes (alpha strikes).

Remember that every time a carrier launches aircraft she has to manoeuvre into the wind. A conventional carrier also needs wind to recover aircraft, but HMS Prince of Wales will recover hers vertically, a simpler proposition. Like any other warship, a carrier fights the sea.

The rougher the sea, the more difficult it is for her to operate aircraft.

The smaller the carrier, moreover, the more dangerous aircraft operation can be. When the US Navy went from WWII-built carriers about a quarter larger than the Invincible class to ships the size of HMS Prince of Wales, its aircraft operating accident rate fell dramatically. In addition, the rate at which the ships could operate their aircraft increased dramatically. The larger the ship, the less she moves in a given sea. The less she moves, the more easily, safely and reliably she can operate her aircraft. The difference was not only that the larger ships accommodated more aircraft, but also that they could fly them more frequently.

More of them survived to do what the carrier was intended to do, operate aircraft against an enemy.

Another way to say this is that a larger carrier can operate effectively over a greater percentage of the available sea space, both because she can operate aircraft in worse weather and because she can operate larger, longer-range aircraft. An enemy will find it more difficult to guess where she is at any one time. Even in an age of satellite surveillance, it is not so very easy for a submarine to find a carrier in the vastness of the sea. That the larger carrier can run at higher speed in rough weather makes it much more difficult to use information collected by a satellite or aircraft at any one moment to mount an attack hours later.

Falklands and Kosovo To see what the limitation imposed by aircraft range might mean, look back at the Argentinian air attacks on British carriers during the

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US NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 3RD CLASS ROBERT BURCK

US Navy aircraft launch from USS George HW Bush for strikes against ISIS. The US Navy has argued strenuously that size equates to enhanced survivability and increased performance.

Falklands War. The British carriers were protecting vital invasion and support shipping in Falkland Sound by keeping their Sea Harriers overhead as much as possible. These aircraft repeatedly beat off Argentine air attacks. The price paid was that the carriers had to remain in a limited area to the east (the direction away from Argentina, to stay beyond the range of Argentine aircraft).

Had the carriers supporting the Falklands operation been larger, they could have been operating larger, longer-range aircraft – and they would have had much greater freedom of manoeuvre. It was very poignant that, no more than seven years earlier, the Royal Navy had been operating larger carriers with longer-range aircraft that would have offered exactly this kind of advantage. In effect, the Royal Navy is now buying the sort of performance it lacked during the Falklands War. For that matter, when HMS Invincible was supporting the NATO operation in Kosovo, she benefitted from her mobility

(she was able to keep moving into patches of clearer weather that permitted air operations), but even so, the limited range of her aircraft limited her choice of position. The Serbians had submarines, but, unlike the Argentinians, they were unwilling (or perhaps unable) to use them.

Had their submarines come out, the limitations size and aircraft performance imposed on the ship could have had very real consequences.

Then there is cost itself. A larger ship is much less expensive per tonne than a smaller one, because a lot of the cost of the ship is in electronics and combat systems that would be about the same for a larger or a smaller ship. Steel itself is inexpensive, particularly when it is fabricated industrially, outside a traditional shipyard (as in the case of HMS Prince of Wales). It was once estimated that steel accounted for only about 20 percent of the cost of the ship. People certainly are expensive, but the most expensive of the people on board the ship operate her systems and maintain her aircraft. More aircraft are certainly more expensive than fewer, but the cost of special people and special equipment (to maintain and handle aircraft) can be spread over that larger number.

HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth are the largest warships the Royal Navy has ever built, but they are hardly the largest aircraft carriers in the world. These two carriers are probably the smallest and least expensive vessels the Royal Navy could build which would still accommodate enough aircraft with high enough performance, and with all the advantages that large carrier size offers. *All opinions expressed are the author’s own, and should not necessarily be attributed to the US Navy, or to any other organisation with which he has been associated.

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UK NAVAL STRATEGY AND THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Ever since the end of the Second World War, the United Kingdom has attempted to balance financial realities with the aspiration of remaining a credible global naval power. Its aim has always been to project soft and hard power to protect stability and safeguard security. Simon Michell explains why the Prince of Wales Naming Ceremony ushers in the second phase of a reinvigorated aircraft carrier capability that will be able to support these ambitions.

I

n 1945, the Royal Navy had 900 major warships and more than 866,000 sailors. There was still an empire to defend and the United Kingdom was one of three major powers that decided the fate of Europe and Asia at the end of the Second World War (WWII). This was the highpoint of British naval power and UK influence in the 20th century. Since the end of WWII, the UK has continuously sought ways to maintain a credible maritime presence sufficient to achieve strategic defence and political aims. Over successive “Statements on Defence Estimates” and “Defence Reviews” Great Britain has defined a naval policy that combines increasingly challenging financial realities with defence budget priorities.

In 1948, Clement Attlee’s Labour Government produced what “A Brief Guide to Previous British defence Reviews” terms, “the first vestiges of a post WWII defence policy.” This was based on the three pillars of: defence of the UK, maintaining vital sea communications, and securing the Middle East as a defensive and striking base against the Soviet Union. The aircraft carrier remained a vital element of this doctrine. However, it was not until 1957 that the first real forwardlooking Strategic Defence Review was delivered to parliament. Known as the Sandys Review, this document used the lens of the prevailing geopolitical environment to determine the direction of future UK defence 78

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policy. It combined a proposal for radical reductions in force structures and manpower together with a realignment of UK defence policy. Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Defence at the time, recognised the UK’s role within NATO and Britain’s growing reliance on the United States. Moreover the Sandys Review articulated the recurring theme that, “Britain’s influence in the world depends first and foremost on the health of her internal economy and the success of her export trade. Without these, military power cannot in the long run be supported. It is therefore in the true interests of defence that the claims of military expenditure should be considered in conjunction with the need to maintain the country’s financial and economic strength.” Although under a growing spotlight, the aircraft carrier remained a central key to achieving the defence aims.

In fact, during the 1960s, the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier capability was second only to the United States.

Fast forward to 1998 and another Labour Government was faced with redefining the UK’s defence vision – this time

MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT 2016 PHOTO BY ANDREW LINNETT

HMS Prince of Wales will join HMS Queen Elizabeth in ensuring that the UK always has at least one aircraft carrier ready to deploy.

in a post-Cold War environment. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the Warsaw Pact was a doubleedged sword. On the one hand, it seemed that Britain and her allies could look forward to a peace dividend where defence structures and commitments could be further reduced. On the other hand, the collapse of the Soviet Union created a power vacuum that continues to throw up regional security challenges not just in Europe, but also on a wider global scale. The current instability in the Ukraine is just one example of the potential for destabilisation in the former states of the Soviet Union. Russia’s support for the Assad government in Syria further illustrates a renewed ambition for Russia to remain a serious global player on the international scene.

The 1998 Strategic Defence Review therefore called for the UK armed forces to be

able to operate with more agility to confront situations on a worldwide basis, predominantly with the US but also by itself – if required. Moving away from the somewhat predictable land and sea defence postures of the Cold War would require a beefed up expeditionary capability that would enable the UK to send significant force deployments rapidly to practically anywhere in the world. The two Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, which are now being prepared for service, were born in this review.

This George Robertson-led Strategic Defence Review also required the three armed services to further deepen their ability to operate together in what is often termed “jointery” or joint operations. The subsequent creation of Joint Force Harrier in 2001, where both Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (Fleet Air Arm – FAA) squadrons manned the three Invincible-class carriers – HM Ships Ark Royal, Illustrious and Invincible – is a core product of this concept. The Lightning Force which supersedes it is comprised of the resurrected 617 (RAF) and 809 Naval Air Squadron (RN) units, and was set up in 2015 using many of the lessons learned from its predecessor.

During the 1990s, the Invincible-class carriers had refocused their primary Cold War tasking as submarine and warship hunters in favour of a Carrier Strike capability with the FA.2 Harrier fighter/attack jump jet aircraft eventually being replaced by the RAF’s Harrier GR7/9, which had a more substantial land attack capability. The establishment of the Joint Helicopter Command in 1999 is another example of this concept – particularly as more helicopter types like the Army Air Corps (AAC) Apache and the RAF Chinook have been adapted so that they can operate from ships. This has huge potential as the JHC operates more than 200 Forward Fleet aircraft including the Merlin and Wildcat helicopters of the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force, the RAF’s

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NARA PHOTO BY ABBIE ROWE

Chinook and Puma helicopters, and the Apache, Bell 212, Gazelle, Lynx, and Wildcat helicopters of the AAC, and somewhat paradoxically, the AAC fixed-wing Islander aircraft as well as the Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operated by 47th Regiment Royal Artillery.

The two new QEC carriers, however, are not mere replacements for the Invincible class, they are a step change in capability.

At 65,000 tonnes they eclipse the 20,000-tonne Invincible class and will be the largest ships the Royal Navy has ever put into service. Together, they will underpin the expeditionary vision and according to the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, published by the Conservative/Liberal coalition, “A Queen Elizabeth-class carrier, operating the most modern combat jets, will give the UK the ability to project military power more than 700 miles over land, as well as sea, from anywhere in the world.”

DOD PHOTO BY HELENE C. STIKKEL

21st century Carrier Strike That said, the 2010 SDSR called for yet another reduction in force structures and manpower whilst delivering a refreshed set of assumptions detailing what the UK government expected the armed forces to be capable of undertaking. These assumptions recognised the continuing shrinkage of the three armed services and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) and therefore represented a scaling down of the scope of taskings. Consequently, the resulting Future Force 2020 (FF2020) was to be smaller but more agile, and by 2020 would be expected to be fully manned and trained to undertake a number of relatively small-scale operations simultaneously. Another more grandiose scenario was for UK armed forces to be able to conduct a single all-UK intervention with up to three brigades, with maritime and air support (around 30,000 personnel, two-thirds of the force deployed to Iraq in 2003).

Left: Clement Attlee’s Labour government produced the first vestiges of a new British postwar defence strategy. Right: Lord Robertson’s 1998 Strategic Defence Review called upon the British armed forces to adopt a more “joint” approach to UK defence operations, which led to the establishment of Joint Force Harrier.

At the time of the 2010 SDSR, the government announced its intention to revisit defence policy every five years, and so when a new Conservative government replaced the coalition in 2015 a follow-up review was produced before the end of the year. The 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review entitled “A Secure and Prosperous United Kingdom” listed a series of threats and challenges but did not foresee the existential uncertainty placed on the NATO Alliance during the US 2016 presidential elections nor the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union following the 2016 referendum. It did, however, reinforce the two-carrier policy and fully backed the naval Carrier Strike Strategy. In reference to the two carriers, the document states that, “They will form the core of our maritime task group, with one available at all times.” It also announced

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CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY SAC TIM LAURENCE

The 2015 SDSR called for a growth in UK armed forces and the acquisition of more F-35B Lightning fast jets.

an intention to increase the number of F-35 Lightnings it intended to purchase, although this procurement decision was deferred to the next decade.

The 2015 SDSR was unique in living memory in that for the first time since the end of WWII there was no further shrinkage of defence capability. The Army was to be held at no less than 82,000 and a small but psychologically significant growth of 700 personnel was to be shared by the RAF and RN. “We will ensure that the Armed Forces are able to tackle a wider range of more sophisticated potential adversaries,” the document reads. “They will project power, be able to deploy more quickly and for longer periods, and make best use of new technology. We will maintain our military advantage and extend it into new areas, including cyber and space. We will develop a new Joint Force 2025 to do this, building on Future Force 2020.”

The expeditionary force resulting from this change in policy meant that the UK would be able to deploy a larger force more quickly, and that by 2025, it would be able to muster around 50,000 personnel compared to the 30,000 planned in FF2020. Critically it will include: • a maritime task group centred on a QEC aircraft carrier with F-35 Lightning combat aircraft, • a land division with three brigades including a new Strike Force, • an air group of combat, transport and surveillance aircraft, • a Special Forces task group.

International partnerships The steady reduction in the RN fleet, balanced by an exponential rise in technological advancement, has resulted in a need to strengthen international partnerships, not just in maritime operations but also in naval vessel programme development. The French, for example, co-financed the development phase of the QEC with an eventual view to manufacturing a sister ship to its Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier based on the British effort. The US Navy and Marine Corps, and to a lesser extent the French navy, are helping the Royal Navy train up its pilots and ground maintenance/flight control teams whilst the RN was temporarily without a fixed-wing carrier of its own.

On the operations side, the Royal Navy has forged strong relationships with navies around the world, particularly in the fields of maritime security. The counter-terrorism Operation Sea Guardian (formerly Active Endeavour), in the Mediterranean is a NATO activity whereas the counter-narcotics effort in the Atlantic is undertaken primarily in cooperation with the US and Dutch navies, supervised through the Florida-based JIATF (Joint Inter-Agency Task Force) as well as Lisbon-based MAOC-N (Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics). The effort to contain piracy off the Horn of Africa contains both a coalition Combined Task Force and a European Union element under Operation Atalanta.

Keeping the sea lanes open Any government’s first priority is the safety and security of its people. For a maritime nation, this entails ensuring that the sea lanes remain open for the commerce that is essential for a growing economy and a population in need of food, raw materials, manufactured goods, and above all else, energy. The Royal Navy has a long

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tradition of maintaining freedom of access to the sea and is one of only a few nations that have been able to muster the full panoply of capabilities that this can require. With the reintroduction of the Carrier Strike capability in 2020, the UK will once again be able to deploy a task group with its own air cover and aircraft able to strike targets on land.

When the UK became a net importer of oil and gas in 2005, the Arabian Sea and particularly the four-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world’s energy is transported, became of greater consequence to the nation. Fortunately, having an aircraft carrier the size of HM Ships Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, with flight decks comprising four acres of sovereign real estate, offers politicians and commanders an extremely broad range of options should any state attempt to cut off the oil and gas by closing the maritime access routes. Currently, France, Italy, Spain, and the US are the only NATO partner nations that can deploy a fixed-wing carrier group to these waters. The value of these huge ships and the air component should never be underestimated. When Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz in December 2011 the presence of two US carriers – USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln – caused the Iranian government to openly state that they did not want carriers in these waters, thereby exposing their concern of the firepower that these vessels can deliver.

The Strait of Hormuz is not the only sea lane that could be a potential choke point. The Straits of Malacca off Sumatra and the southern entrance to the Suez Canal are two of the most important trade routes on the planet. Unfortunately, both are plagued by a growing presence of pirates that seize ships and hold them and their crews to ransom. A naval presence is essential to safeguard the shipping in both regions.

Once again, the size and flexibility of an aircraft carrier offers options that smaller vessels are not always able to provide. Again, the Royal Navy plays a major role in both these waters. As part of the Five Powers Defence Arrangements, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and US hold regular combined exercises to help maintain stability where the Pacific and Indian Oceans meet each other. The Royal Navy is also a backbone of the effort to address the piracy threat off the Horn of Africa from its Northwood command centre in North London, which helps to coordinate coalition 84

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Combined Task Force 151, made up of ships from beyond NATO including, on occasions ships from Australia, China, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, and the UAE. This combined international effort has been spectacularly successful in constraining acts of piracy off the east coast of Africa. In fact, the 2017 Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) report reveals that there were no successful pirate attacks off East Africa in 2016. There were attempted hijackings but a mixture of improved ship defences and the actions taken by the international community have had a dramatic impact.

Where this international resolve is not on show, piracy continues to grow, particularly off West Africa and in Asia.

Power projection The UK’s high profile as a founder member of NATO with a permanent seat on the United Nations’ Security Council as well as being a member of the European Union means that it is frequently called upon to come to the assistance of other

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LPHOT IOAN ROBERTS

HMS Queen Elizabeth sails with USS George HW Bush and Royal Navy, US Navy, and Royal Norwegian Navy escorts. The Royal Navy has forged strong relationships with navies around the world.

British Army Apache helicopters (foreground) proved the concept of UK carrier-borne helicopter strike sorties during Operation Ellamy off the coast of Libya. RAF Chinooks (background) also provided additional options.

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nations in their time of need. The example of the US carriers in the Arabian Gulf bears witness to the fact that aircraft carriers have both a psychological and military deterrent effect. Whereas, a submarine, such as one of the Royal Navy’s brand new Astute-class boats, may have an onshore strike capability through its Tomahawk missiles, their hidden nature makes them quite a covert threat. Undoubtedly, submarines do deliver a deterrent threat, but sailing a 60,000-tonne aircraft carrier along the coastline of a state brings enormous influence to bear down in the minds of those who may be contemplating aggression. Added to their size, a mixed package of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft with devastating firepower and vast intelligence-gathering capabilities and the ability to embark a Commando or Special Forces unit can be the deciding factor that persuades a state to forgo a military adventure. It is, beyond doubt, one of the clearest and strongest messages a government can send to another regime.

Naturally, if the errant state decides to engage militarily, a rapid intervention can be implemented that few countries could hope to counter effectively.

Humanitarian missions The onset of global warming has become generally accepted worldwide not just as a result of the scientific analysis that has investigated the phenomenon, but also due, in many respects, to the increase in storms, hurricanes and typhoons that appear to be taking on an increasingly destructive nature. Earthquakes, and the possibility of a resultant tsunami, represent another danger to the countries that enjoy a coastal perspective – some 80 percent

of all nations. According to Commodore Mike Beardall RN, once a storm or earthquake has hit a population, especially if it belongs to one of the 14 British Overseas Territories (BOTs), the first thing a government minister will often say is. “Where is our nearest ship?” When the infrastructure of a region has been crippled, one of the most effective ways, if not the only way of delivering rapid aid, is via a ship that has its own planning team, ground vehicles, airborne assets and manpower. Obviously, the bigger the ship, the more aid that can be embarked. The Royal Navy prides itself in having a highly developed Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) capability that is put to use on a regular basis around the world. The rapid and effective aid delivered to the Philippines in 2013 following Typhoon Haiyan also featured in this publication describes the humanitarian value of this international blue-light service.

It could be argued that the aspirations of the 1957 Sandys Review have finally been achieved. In May 2012, the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence, Philip Hammond, revealed that the nation’s defence budget had been balanced, meaning that following the 2010 SDSR adjustments all equipment procurement programmes were adequately financially supported and the cost of maintaining the UK’s armed forces, at around 2 percent of GDP was manageable, and therefore no longer an economic risk to the nation. When the Joint Force 2025 is achieved, the Royal Navy and its support arm, the RFA, will have 90 ships between them – crewed and managed by approximately 31,000 sailors. By then, the two QEC aircraft carriers will be the flagships of one of the world’s most technologically advanced expeditionary navies, with a global presence, an enviable reputation for mission success, and capable of meeting all taskings required by the government.

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SUPPORTING HMS PRINCE OF WALES The Royal Fleet Auxiliary is introducing a fleet of four modern Tide-class tankers whose primary role will be to support the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers. Simon Michell talks to the managing director of A&P Group to find out how they are being customised for this role.

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upporting Royal Navy (RN) ships at sea became a major priority with the transition from sail to steam power at the turn of the last century. The engines that drove RN ships from continent to continent consumed huge amounts of coal, which needed restocking on a regular basis. And, hence, since the introduction of engines, the Royal Navy has been shadowed at sea by Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) support ships capable of replenishing sailors with food, water, ammunition, and of course fuel.

Manned by civilians, and owned by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the RFA is far more than a floating mobile pitstop service. The organisation supports the RN during peacetime and in times of conflict.

It also undertakes deployments by itself with its ships operating independently on the nation’s behalf, offering reassurance to British Overseas Territories, contributing to disaster relief operations, and playing a part in counter-piracy and anti-narcotics operations. The impressive fleet includes replenishment vessels and tankers for dry stores and liquid fuel, an aviation training/hospital ship (RFA Argus) and three Bay-class floating docks that can transfer personnel, stores and equipment from ship to shore during beach assault operations.

Over the past decade, the RFA has had to play its part in the austerity measures that have seen all of the armed services adjust numbers of personnel and withdraw equipment faster than had been originally anticipated. However, like the other armed services, which have all seen a range of new equipment enter service over the past few years, the RFA is about to refresh its support fleet with four new 86

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double-hulled Tide-class tankers to replace the singlehulled vessels that no longer comply with international MARPOL (marine pollution) environmental standards.

The Tide-class tankers Although suitable for supporting the full spectrum of RN and alliance/partner nation warships, the primary function of the four 37,000-tonne Tideclass tankers is to provide ship and aircraft fuel and fluids to the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers at much faster rates than the ships they are replacing. To do this they have been fitted with equipment that offers much improved transfer rates alongside a dualhose capability that was not available on the earlier vessels.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LPHOT KEN GAUNT

A&P Group was awarded the contract to make the Tideclass ready to support RN operations.

This superior capability is required to ensure that the QEC can be sufficiently replenished in realistic timeframes.

Based on a British design from BMT Defence Services, and built in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co, the ships – Tidespring, Tiderace, Tidesurge and Tideforce – have started arriving in the UK to be prepared for introduction into the RFA. The first-in-class, RFA Tidespring, docked at A&P Falmouth on April 2, 2017, to begin 17 weeks of intensive customisation work before she can start sea trials and eventually be handed over to the RFA. According to the recently appointed A&P Group Managing Director, David McGinley, the new Tide-class vessels offer a step-change in capability, including improved: • self-defence, • crew comfort and facilities for accommodation and working spaces, • automation, enabling reduced crew numbers, and • replenishment at sea (RAS) rigs.

A&P Falmouth, which already supports a number of RFA vessels, including the Bay-class ships and RFA Argus, won the contract to customise and support the new vessels in a hotly contested competition that was awarded in January 2015. McGinley explains how the programme has been developed. “Prior to the arrival of each Tideclass vessel, the A&P project team develops more than 40 customised design packages using our own in-house design capability together with a collaborative approach with key equipment, systems, and military suppliers,” he says. “A period of production then takes place to

deliver key capability upgrades and equipment commissioning needed to support the Royal Navy.” According to McGinley, A&P will deliver the same services for each of the Tideclass ships. Work also includes delivering safety and environmental assessment packages to all four vessels and facilitating direct stores.

As part of the programme, A&P will also manage the full military capability trials for the vessels before they are introduced into service. These trials will demonstrate and prove the full capability of each vessel, including aviation/helicopter landing and RAS. “Trials will primarily take place on the south coast and western approaches, but may go as far as Scotland and into the mid-Atlantic,” McGinley says.

Supporting the Tide-class tankers A&P will provide in-service support to the Tide class around the world on

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RFA Tidespring in dry dock at A&P. Following 17 weeks of conversion and customisation Tidespring will set off for full military capability sea trials that will be supervised by the A&P Group.

operations, during humanitarian relief missions, and throughout routine peacetime deployments. The company has not just sat back and waited for the ships to come to them; they have supported Tidespring even before she left South Korea, working with the ship’s staff and the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) team who are located in Falmouth.

Along the route to the UK, A&P supported Tidespring in Japan, Hawaii and Panama. “A&P

will support the remaining three vessels in the same way during their voyages here too,” McGinley adds.

On arrival, each vessel will be docked at A&P Falmouth for a 17-week customisation period. Throughout this period A&P will be responsible for coordinating all work on the vessels, whether this be an in-service repair or alongside maintenance or capability upgrade. Modifications will include capability upgrades and UK completion of installed systems

by UK-based key suppliers.

During these continued times of austerity, every penny counts, and so cost-savings are always high on the agenda. Not surprisingly, McGinley is keen to extol his company’s ability to work efficiently and reduce the money spent on the programme. “A&P Group operates on a low-cost reactive business model, designed to flex to the work as and when required,” McGinley says. “In order to save on expenses, A&P has completed a significant amount of work at A&P Falmouth rather than in South Korea, reducing the associated travel and subsistence costs.” Furthermore, A&P and the RFA work collaboratively to review and plan all scope of works to reduce costs whilst improving vessel capability.

When HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship enter service in the next decade they will have a fleet of the most modern and capable support ships available, ably manned by the men and women of the RFA.

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HMS Bulwark (foreground) and HMS Ocean during Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) (JEF[M]) in the Mediterranean, Sept. 28, 2016.

Ensuring the United Kingdom never runs out of food or fuel, holding back the rash aspirations of unpredictable regimes, containing lawlessness at sea as well as coming to the aid of those in need is all in a day’s work for the men and women of the Royal Navy.

Simon Michell explains.

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he Royal Navy’s (RN’s) day-to-day operations encompass a set of continuous, permanent, and ad-hoc taskings that very few other navies are called upon to deliver.

British warships are on constant watch on the high seas – from the coastlines around Britain, up into the North Sea, around the Mediterranean through the Suez to the Gulf and Indian Ocean, and in both extremes of the North and South Atlantic.

Defence of the UK and its overseas territories The defence of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories is the government’s principal duty. However, due to the large distances involved between the UK and its far-flung dependencies in the North and South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and the Pacific, this requires a global reach across the world’s oceans and a combination of ships, submarines, and aircraft selected and crewed specifically to fulfil each role.

Most First Sea Lords would confirm that the huge team effort required to maintain the unbroken

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GLOBAL REACH

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sequence of continuous nuclear deterrent submarine patrols is the task most likely to keep them awake at night. But this is just one of the many roles the RN undertakes to protect the UK and its assets.

Three of the RN’s four River-class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) regularly patrol the oil and gas fields in the North Sea along with the UK’s wider Exclusive Economic Zone, which is becoming ever more important to the country as renewable energy infrastructure is increasingly being placed within it. All this is on top of the squadron’s main task of keeping a close eye on the fishing fleets that are a permanent feature on 80,000 square miles of British waters. Such is the utility of these versatile vessels that the RN has ordered five slightly bigger versions that will begin to join the fleet in 2017.

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Implementing foreign policy Beyond British waters, the Royal Navy is most likely to be operating alongside a combined maritime security force made up of ships from the European Union (EU), NATO, or other international coalitions. That said, there are still a few exceptions to this rule. The Gibraltar Squadron, consisting of two Sabre-class fast patrol boats and three Pacific 24 speedboats that protect ships coming in and out of the western entrance of the Mediterranean, mostly operates independently of other nations.

Some 8,000 miles from Gibraltar, the fourth River-class OPV, HMS Clyde, is on permanent patrol around the Falkland Islands and South Georgia in the South Atlantic. She is not entirely alone down there as another RN vessel, the Ice Patrol Ship HMS Protector, also tours these

HMS Dragon (foreground) shadows the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.

waters. Protector’s role is slightly different in that she and her crew are there to support Antarctic survey teams as well as to help monitor and protect the delicate ecosystem that is in danger of over exploitation.

The RN also despatches other warships and auxiliaries to the South Atlantic via the west coast of Africa, which the UK government is very mindful of due to the instability in the region and the increasingly ruthless pirate presence.

Typically, this will consist of a frigate or destroyer accompanied by a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) replenishment ship.

While the South Atlantic Patrol is operating below the equator, APT(N) (Atlantic Patrol Tasking, North), which also typically comprises a frigate, destroyer, or RFA ship, maintains an annual presence above it. There are two key reasons for this – drugs and hurricanes.

From late summer through into autumn, the overseas territories in the Caribbean are at greatest risk from storms. RN and RFA ships are ideal for helping these stricken islanders get back on their feet following the devastation a hurricane can wreak as they are self-sufficient, contain highly trained and adaptable crews, and they have helicopters that can carry supplies into remote places and rescue those that have become cut off by landslides and flooding.

Whilst in the Caribbean, APT(N) also helps in the fight against South American drug lords. Directed out of the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF South) in Key West, US warships and Coast Guard cutters combine their strength

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PRATT & WHITNEY CONGRATULATES THE ROYAL NAVY ON THE HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH CLASS CARRIERS.

The Falkland Islands patrol ship, HMS Clyde, forms part of the permanent presence in the South Atlantic alongside RAF Typhoon fast jets and British Army troops.

with international navies (from Europe – British, French, and Dutch) to intercept vast quantities of illicit drugs – marijuana, cocaine, heroin – en-route to North America and Europe.

© CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY JAY ALLEN

Strength in numbers NATO is the RN’s most important military alliance and one in which it therefore plays a leading role. Four Standing NATO Maritime Groups (SNMGs) – two dedicated to mine hunting and two fulfilling conventional naval roles – take it in turn to patrol the North Sea, the Baltic coastline, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Gulf. They typically deliver maritime security operations (MSOs) for all active within the waters they patrol, but they can also be called upon at a moment’s notice to respond to emergencies and deliver a military response when necessary. In October 2016, for example, the Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan

was part of the SNMG 1 that shadowed the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov as it headed for Syria through the English Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar.

Ensuring that oil and gas container ships can get through another choke point unmolested – the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the United Arab Emirates – and that the waters both sides are safe to navigate, is yet another important RN activity. Hunt and Sandown-class mine countermeasures vessels, frigates, destroyers, and hydrographic survey ships and their associated helicopters maintain a rolling presence.

Projecting stability The Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) (JEF[M]) formerly known as the Cougar Deployment, is perhaps the largest annual activity on the RN’s busy schedule. It is a highly visible illustration of the UK’s willingness and ability to deploy a force consisting of warships, aircraft, soldiers and marines anywhere in the world at speed. The inaugural JEF(M) which left Gibraltar in September 2016, consisted of two of the largest RN warships – the assault ship HMS Bulwark, and the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, as well as RFA Mounts Bay and MV Eddystone. Already an impressive show of force, future JEF(M) deployments will however become considerably more awe-inspiring when accompanied by a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier such as HMS Prince of Wales.

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UPHOLDING THE RULE OF LAW Terrorists, smugglers, and pirates use the wide expanses of the seas to carry out their evil deeds, but the Royal Navy (RN) is on hand to make things difficult. Simon Michell looks at the key naval operations the RN participates in to counter those who choose to break the law at sea.

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muggling drugs, weapons, and people across shorelines and acts of piracy are sometimes portrayed in the media as exciting and romantic escapades – a sort of David versus Goliath mismatch where the disenfranchised try to outwit the authorities to eke out a living.

Nothing could be further from the truth. These are, in fact, wicked, brutal, and debilitating deeds. Like a cancer, they steadily eat away at society and gradually weaken the rule of law. For their own selfish ends, criminals make international coastlines porous and more easy for anyone to surreptitiously penetrate, whatever their intentions. The illicit routes, which are used by organised crime syndicates, are hired out to terrorist organisations. The money made is unaccountable and untaxed. It starts off in the wrong hands and is passed on to even worse ones. It is used to co-opt and corrupt politicians and the governing authorities. Moreover, it funds a continuous spiral of illegal activity. The cycle goes on until somebody interrupts it.

Anyone reading a newspaper or watching the news will have been appalled by the tragic scenes playing out in the Mediterranean, where thousands have already perished at sea having thrown themselves on the mercy of totally immoral and irresponsible traffickers who promise desperate migrants a sure-fire and risk-free transit into Europe.

It was also not too long ago that the seemingly unstoppable increase in acts of piracy off the Horn and west coast of Africa was ramping up shipping insurance rates and increasing voyage lengths as vessels went out of their way to avoid being attacked. Likewise, the cat-andmouse battle against South American drug barons in the waters off the Caribbean continues unabated, with ingenious technologies applied on 94

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both sides. As navies employ more advanced surveillance equipment and tactics, so the smugglers upgrade their own techniques – faster boats, more cunning concealments, and even mini submarines – so-called narco-subs.

The Royal Navy at the heart of the fight It is not widely known, but a leafy north London suburb is the centre for a global maritime effort to counter illegal acts at sea. The recently refurbished base at Northwood is home, among other things, to NATO Maritime Command (MARCOM). At MARCOM, a multinational staff oversees several NATO naval tasks, including the counter-terrorist and anti-piracy operations – Sea Guardian and Ocean Shield.

Operation Sea Guardian was launched on Nov. 9, 2016, to replace Active Endeavour, which was initiated as an Article 5 response to the 9/11 attacks on the United States where an armed attack on one NATO country is viewed by the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty as an attack on all. The original operation started off very much as a counter-terrorist effort – part of the war on terrorism – before taking on a wider remit. Sea Guardian continues this wide remit and seeks to make the Mediterranean a safe place for all by building a picture of what is going on and then intercepting and boarding vessels suspected of a range of infringements, including arms and people smuggling as well as conveying terrorists.

The boarding team from the Type 23 frigate HMS Monmouth approaches a suspect dhow during maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf.

Alongside Sea Guardian is the European Union (EU) Operation Sophia, which is run out of Rome on behalf of the EU Naval Force Mediterranean.

Sophia, named after a migrant child born on a rescue vessel, the German frigate SchleswigHolstein in August 2015, was exclusively focused on the human trafficking problem.

However, as part of its duties it now also enforces the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2292, which calls for suspicious ships sailing into or out of Libya to be boarded, searched, and any weapons confiscated. Not surprisingly, the RN is a very active participant in this effort.

information. Owing to the presence of British Overseas Territories in the region, Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ships have long been involved in counter drugs operations, with some spectacular successes. Since its launch, Martillo alone has supported the seizure of 693 tons of cocaine, $25 million (£20 million) cash, and 581 vessels and aircraft as well as the arrest of 1,863 suspects. In November 2016, RFA Wave Knight helped to prevent £40 million worth of cocaine reaching the streets after a Royal Marine sniper flying overhead put a bullet in the engine of the smugglers’ speedboat.

CROWN COPYRIGHT, PHOTO BY LA(PHOT) GARY WEATHERSTON

Stemming the drug flow Counter drugs Operation Martillo, launched in 2012, is a 14-nation US-led operation that seeks to intercept drug, money, and arms shipments in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and eastern Pacific. The complex operation is masterminded out of the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF South) in Key West, Florida, which also gathers and disseminates

Pirates in decline?

At around the same time, another RFA ship, Gold Rover, had been participating in the long-running French-led Operation Corymbe, which is helping to combat the increasing pirate presence along the west coast of Africa. A much larger anti-piracy effort has been taking place on the other side of Africa consisting of NATO Operation Ocean Shield, EU Operation Atalanta, and the Combined Task Force 151 – part of the US-led Combined Maritime Forces. The Royal Navy contributes manpower, ships, and aircraft to all three of these operations.

In terms of the threat to large commercial vessels, the simultaneous missions have effectively put an end to the Somali pirate problem. Piracy still goes on, but the intense international effort, both offshore and

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onshore, has been remarkably successful. This is not the end of piracy by any means. As already mentioned, the west coast of Africa has a significant pirate problem, as does Asia around the Malaccan Straits, but as an example of what concerted international action can do, the suppression of Somali pirates has been impressive.

Just as the Royal Navy helped to put an end to the transportation of slaves by sea 200 years ago, it has also played and continues to play a major role in the clampdown of modern criminal acts at sea. The key lessons to be learned, however, are that the challenge is immense, the task continuous, and no single country could ever hope to succeed by itself.

Refugees aboard a sinking inflatable boat being rescued off the coast of Libya.

Seized drug bales are stacked on the deck of HMS Argyll following a successful counternarcotics operation in the Caribbean.

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HUMANITARIAN AID AND DISASTER RELIEF OPERATIONS TYPHOON HAIYAN, PHILIPPINES A Case Study

hen Typhoon Haiyan devastated vast swathes of Southeast Asia almost four years ago on Nov. 8, 2013, a critical part of the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) support was to send two Royal Navy ships to the Philippines.

One of the Royal Navy’s newest warships, HMS Daring, was midway through her global deployment when she was re-tasked to Cebu. She provided UK medical assistance, food aid, and clean water to victims in the outlying islands stranded without assistance. HMS Daring’s Lynx helicopter spent three days surveying some of the smaller, more far-flung islands that had not yet been reached by humanitarian agencies. She was able to determine what aid was required – and it soon became clear more supplies were needed.

The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, with her embarked helicopter force, greater manpower, and huge hangar space, was sent to assist.

She had been deployed in the Middle East as part of the UK’s Maritime Response Force Task Group (RFTG) – the UK’s high-readiness maritime force (renamed Joint Expeditionary Force [Maritime] in 2016) ready to act at short notice to any task – and was ordered to sail the 4,500 miles in 10 days to reach the stricken Philippines.

HMS Illustrious’ mobile airbase was key – it allowed the embarked helicopters to deliver vital provisions and tools to isolated areas that 98

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A Merlin helicopter from 829 Naval Air Squadron is seen here at one of the humanitarian aid camps set up by HMS Illustrious. The helicopter was used to deliver food and equipment as well as transport personnel from the ship to the surrounding islands.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY L(PHOT) NICKY WILSON

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could not be reached by aircraft operating from the mainland.

Royal Navy Sea King and Merlin and British Army Lynx helicopters operated from dawn until dusk delivering personnel and aid to the island clusters around the central Philippine island of Panay. By the beginning of December, HMS Illustrious’ seven embarked helicopters had collectively amassed more than 274 flying hours ferrying people, equipment, and underslung loads to and from shore.

This allowed island communities to begin to reconstruct their lives. En-route to the Philippines, the ship stopped in Singapore to load hundreds of

pallets and boxes of food, rice, and disaster relief packs into the huge aircraft hangar. Items included 12,000 blankets, 80 tonnes of roofing material and tools (which provided shelter for up to 8,000 families), 100 tonnes of rice (half of all the rice available in Singapore), electrical generators, boat repair kits, and 12,000 jerry cans to fill with clean drinking water manufactured on board using the ship’s reverse osmosis plant.

HMS Illustrious’ Commanding Officer at the time, Capt Mike Utley, said: “Our capabilities perfectly matched what was required in the Philippines.

We were able to get to where we were needed quickly and our size and flexibility meant that we could store and distribute extremely large volumes of emergency aid supplies. Our embarked helicopters were essential in surveying large areas, including remote islands, and then in delivering aid to places that simply could not be accessed by any other means. “Most significantly, many members of the ship’s company and the 300 additional embarked sailors, Royal Marines, soldiers, and airmen were

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able to get ashore to assess needs, deliver food, and repair key services and broken infrastructure.” He added: “The people in the Philippines are extremely resilient, but it was clear to me that those in the worst-hit areas had been through a lot. Given the volume and type of aid and assistance that we were able to deliver to the more inaccessible islands, we believe that we set in excess of 40,000 people firmly on the road to recovery.”

HMS Illustrious also provided support to charities and other aid organisations operating in the area.

Some 3,000 tarpaulins, enough to re-roof 1,500 homes, were delivered to a German charity working in Roxas City, north Panay, for onward distribution.

In the earliest stages of the Philippine-led disaster relief operation, UK military support complemented the work of the Department for International Development (DFID) and the many aid agencies that were also helping. The use of HMS Illustrious and HMS Daring embarked helicopters to reconnoitre the effect of the Typhoon on remote islands and provide assistance to isolated communities, together with the RAF C-17 and C-130 Hercules transport aircraft to deliver relief supplies, demonstrated the rapid and agile response the British military offers across the world.

Top: A British Army Lynx helicopter delivers much-needed supplies to North east Panay, watched by a group of Royal Marines. Above: HMS Illustrious resupplies with bags of food and other stores in Singapore harbor.

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THE ROYAL MARINES Lieutenant Colonel Giles Ebbutt RM (Retd) explains how both Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will be able to launch and support an embarked force of Royal Marines using Merlin HC.4/4A helicopters. And, HMS Prince of Wales will be the first of the two ships to be optimised for this role.

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CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY PO(PHOT) SEAN CLEE

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n November 1956, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines conducted the first large-scale helicopter-borne amphibious assault into the Suez Canal Zone during Operation Musketeer, launching from the aircraft carriers HMS Ocean and HMS Theseus.

They landed 425 men of 45 Commando RM and 23 tons of stores in 90 minutes.

Since then, the Royal Navy has almost continually maintained its ability to launch an embarked force of Royal Marines by helicopter from a ship with a large flight deck, known as a landing platform helicopter (LPH). The most recent of these was the purpose-built HMS Ocean, and as she goes out of service

Left: 45 Commando Royal Marines, Commando Logistics Regiment (CLR), and Commando Helicopter Force (CHF) conduct simultaneous attacks against three enemy positions during the final exercise of the Cold Weather Warfare Course (CWWC).

After achieving their objectives, the Commandos were extracted by a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from 845 Squadron and three Norwegian Huey helicopters. While the Sea King has been retired in favour of the Merlin, the capability remains the same. Right: Troops boarding a Merlin HC.3A helicopter of 845 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) working from the flight deck onboard FS Mistral in the Far East.

Since the Suez Crisis, the Royal Navy has maintained an almost continuous ability to launch an embarked force of Royal Marines by helicopter from a large flight deck, an ability that will expand with the QEC aircraft carriers.

in 2018, the carriers of the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) will take up the baton of providing this capability.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY PO(PHOT) SI ETHELL

Special Purpose Task Group An amphibious force is an immensely flexible instrument. A sovereign capability, unfettered by the constraints of fixed bases and airfields, it can remain available in an area of operations for extended periods but stay uninvolved until necessary. It can move more than 300 miles in 24 hours and respond rapidly to changes in the situation.

An LPH with a large flight deck can then use its helicopters to move marines quickly to wherever they are needed ashore.

The first stage of the QEC evolution as an LPH will run in tandem with, but be subordinate to, the development of the Carrier Strike capability. This will provide an embarked force of marines in what will be known as a Special Purpose Task Group (SPTG).

This could be anything between 50 to 300 strong, depending on the missions that it is likely to have to undertake.

However, the SPTG will normally be based on a rifle company from one of the Royal Marines Commando units, a 100-strong self-contained organisation with its own headquarters. This could then be augmented with a range of specialist capabilities according to the situation

and the requirements of the task. These could include elements such as military police; medical personnel; engineers; interpreters; additional communications; or a variety of heavier weapons if there is a perceived threat. And, even if the necessary specialists are not embarked when a crisis is brewing, they can be flown to wherever in the world the carrier is deployed and then incorporated into the embarked force so they are available if required.

The range of capabilities is only limited by the ability of the helicopters to fly heavy equipment ashore. The SPTG will be equipped with quad bikes and trailers, light enough for heliborne operations, which can be used for moving ammunition and supplies and the heavier weapons if they are needed, but there will be little capacity for vehicles.

The QEC will be equipped with a specialist longrange communications package to provide the links between the ship and the embarked force when it is ashore and may need to communicate over the horizon and beyond the range of normal tactical radios. This could also support a small embarked higher headquarters if it was deemed necessary to provide that additional element of control.

The ship itself will have a small team of Royal Marines permanently embarked. Their task will be to act as the link between the ship and the embarked force, ensuring that the ship is prepared for the presence of the SPTG and that the routines for deploying the force ashore are well practised.

Providing reassurance This initial LPH capability, which will be operational by August 2018, will provide the ability to support an operation to evacuate British and other entitled nationals in situations that would be officially described as “uncertain” – that is, when the

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CROWN COPYRIGHT, ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY L(PHOT) DAVE JENKINS/MOD

ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY PO(PHOT) SI ETHELL/MOD

Right: A Commando Helicopter Force Merlin helicopter and HMS Scimitar, a Scimitar-class fast patrol boat from the Gibraltar Squadron, training above and in British Gibraltar territorial waters. Below: HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy’s landing platform helicopter (LPH) and fleet flagship.

local authorities do not have full control of the security situation but there is unlikely to be any interference with an evacuation. The embarked Merlin HC.4/4A troop-carrying helicopters would fly the marines ashore to provide protection, security, and reassurance during the evacuation, which would be conducted by helicopter.

The embarked force would be a valuable asset and could be used for a variety of tasks if the LPH was deployed to provide assistance in the event of a natural or humanitarian disaster.

Disciplined, self-sufficient, and easily deployed manpower with a range of specialist skills can be crucial in restoring a degree of stability and be a reassuring presence in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event.

The SPTG will also be able to help reinforce ties with friendly nations in what is known as Defence Engagement.

Combined training and the exchange of different experience and expertise is invaluable in forging and maintaining alliances and generating mutual respect. The embarked force will be able to provide specific training that is not otherwise available to a visited country, thereby improving its military capability and adding to regional security. And at the same time, the marines will gain valuable

experience operating in different climates and environments and learning from their hosts.

This initial LPH capability will be expanded by about 2022, once both carriers are in service. This will allow the ships to embark two rifle companies of Royal Marines as well as a small coordinating headquarters and with the capacity to add additional specialists into the mix.

With a full complement of Merlin HC.4/4A helicopters it will be possible to deploy the two companies by air directly to their land objectives in two successive waves.

Although the QEC will be able to operate independently in the LPH role, they will also be a key element of the UK’s Amphibious Task Group.

This will include additional vessels that carry more personnel, heavy equipment, and the landing craft necessary to get it ashore, and a sophisticated afloat headquarters capability. The whole package, part of the UK’s evolving Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime), will be able to deliver a complete Royal Marines Commando Group, including its protected armoured vehicles and supporting arms, to objectives ashore in a simultaneous heli-borne and surface deployment. The new carriers in the LPH role provide the essential large flight deck to allow significant numbers of helicopters to be operated simultaneously as part of that amphibious landing.

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HMS PRINCE OF WALES – THE AIR CREWS

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he entry into service of the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) new aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth, will represent a huge increase in the service’s ability to project force in the seas around the world, and the primary reason for that improvement will be what Cdr James Blackmore, the RN’s Commanding Officer Fixed Wing Force, describes as the “huge step-change in capability” that will be provided by the vessels’ embarked fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

Providing the carriers’ strike capability will be two squadrons of F-35Bs from the UK’s Lightning Force, the complement of which – composed of pilots, aircraft handlers, engineers and other personnel – will come in the ratio of 42 percent from the Royal Navy and 58 percent from the Royal Air Force.

Pilots and maintainers are currently training at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Beaufort in the United States, where 617 Squadron will form in early 2018, before returning to RAF

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USMC PHOTO BY CPL JONAH LOVY

Mike Bryant talks to Commander James Blackmore (Commanding Officer of the Royal Navy’s Fixed Wing Force), Commander Mike Currie (Merlin Force Commander) and Commander Simon Flynn (Force Commander Sea Kings) about the men and women who will provide the air and ground crews for HMS Prince of Wales’ fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

Opposite: RN and RAF air and ground crews are undergoing training with the US Marine Corps in MCAS Beaufort. Right: Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin visiting Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Culdrose, home of the Royal Navy’s Maritime Merlin helicopters. Pictured left to right are Captain Danny Stembridge (Commanding Officer, RNAS Culdrose), Cdr Simon Flynn (Force Commander Sea Kings), Baldwin, and Lt Cdr Chris Hughes (Commanding Officer, 849 Naval Air Squadron). While the Sea King AEW fleet is being retired, its mission is being taken up by the new Merlin CROWSNEST.

Marham in August of the same year. 617 will be the first UK squadron to operationally fly the F-35B, but will be followed not long after by 809 Naval Air Squadron (NAS), which is to be stood up in 2023.

Each of the squadrons will comprise 12 F-35Bs when fully operational, and both will be based at Marham alongside the Lightning operational conversion unit (OCU), 207 Squadron, which forms in the summer of 2019. The RN expects to have an initial operating capability (IOC) for carrier strike by December 2020.

CROWN COPYRIGHT PHOTO BY PO(PHOT) PAUL A’BARROW

The rotary crews With what he describes as “four and a half acres of sovereign territory” aboard a carrier from which to operate, the all-round abilities of the Lightnings will also be supported by rotary-wing aircraft that offer significantly advanced capabilities on currently available assets. At the heart of the carrier group’s anti-submarine (ASW) warfare capability will be their complement of Merlin Mk2 helicopters – the world’s best ASW helicopter, Blackmore notes.

And Cdr Mike Currie, the RN’s Merlin Force Commander, agrees. He explains that the ASW Merlins aboard the carriers will be capable of flexible operations, being equipped with both radar and active and passive sonar buoys, and thus able to operate in both an active and passive submarine detection role. Moreover, they will be able to carry up to four torpedoes or four depth charges to prosecute any targets.

The Mk2 Merlin has “proven technology,” Currie points out, adding that 820 NAS (as the RN’s Queen Elizabeth-class [QEC] carrier squadron) will operate perhaps as many as nine Merlins across the two carriers in the ASW role. The actual number embarked on the carriers will depend on the tasking of any given task force deployment.

Complementing the Merlin Mk2s of 820 NAS will be the airborne surveillance and control capability provided by 849 NAS, equipped with modified Merlin Mk2 helicopters carrying the CROWSNEST airborne radar system. Up to five of these state-of-the-art helicopters will be available for deployment at sea on board the carriers, with numbers again dependent on the nature of the fleet deployment. These helicopters will provide both an airborne early warning (AEW) and command and control capability for high-end task group defence, explains Cdr Simon Flynn, the RN’s Force Commander Sea Kings.

The force of five CROWSNEST helicopters within 849 NAS will be developed incrementally, Flynn explains. Currently, 849 operates Sea King AEW assets and he will oversee the squadron’s transition to the new aircraft as the Sea King is finally withdrawn from service in September 2018. The first Merlin CROWSNEST helicopter is forecast to enter service in July 2019, with IOC in April 2020. Merlin CROWSNEST

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CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY POA(PHOT) GAZ ARMES

A Merlin Mk2 from 820 NAS takes on fuel whilst hovering above the flight deck of RFA Argus.

helicopters will then work up alongside the Mk2 Merlins of 820 NAS on their new carrier home in preparation for the Queen Elizabeth’s IOC by the end of 2020 and its first full deployment scheduled for 2021.

The digital picture of the battlespace produced by CROWSNEST will be integrated into the wider picture from automated identification systems (AIS) and the ASW environment produced by the Merlin ASW helicopters to provide a comprehensive picture above, below, and around the fleet. That overview available to the carrier group will also be communicable to US and other coalition partners as required, through the Link 16 data exchange network, Flynn confirms.

Moreover, other RN aviation assets are also likely to embark on the carriers as and when required, perhaps in support of Royal Marine Commando “Jungly” type roles. That capability is vital, for the carriers are designed to offer a dedicated amphibious capability as well as to be able to operate in their strike role. These might include “green” Merlin Mk3s or 4s, or even RAF CH-47 Chinooks, for which there will be ample room on the carriers’ decks.

Training for the pilots of these various fixed- and rotary-wing assets is ongoing. In terms of the fixed-wing force, ever since the last British Harrier was phased out of service in 2010, intensive training has been maintained to ensure that the various skills associated with fixed-wing carrier operations are not lost. Thus, for example, 10 British pilots have this summer been flying F/A-18 Hornets from US Navy (USN) fleet

carriers, while prior to that about 24 British pilots had already undergone embarked carrier training with the USN. With regard to rotary-wing assets, here, too, training continuity has continued since the withdrawal from service of the RN’s last aircraft carriers of the Invincible class. Merlins have been operating from the amphibious assault ship and helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, with pilots training in the ASW area defence role. They are also now in specific training for their role in support of the carriers; in early July this year, the first Merlin performed a deck landing on HMS Queen Elizabeth as the vessel embarked on its maiden voyage from Rosyth in late June.

As well as pilots, aircraft handlers and other personnel also continue to be trained in the US. They are all honing the skills that will be required for the RN’s own carrier operations of the future.

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THE AIRCRAFT

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MS Prince of Wales is the second of the new Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) carriers to be built for the Royal Navy (RN) and is effectively identical to her sister ship. Between them, the two vessels will provide the United Kingdom (UK) with a step-change in combat capability, initially in what is referred to as the “Carrier Strike” role, and later, when they are both fully operational, by providing the UK with a full-up Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP) capability, allowing UK armed forces to deploy military power from anywhere in the world.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is well into her sea trials and has successfully made her first entry into her home port of Portsmouth, and the build phase of HMS Prince of Wales is progressing well. Formal acceptance of the former is due by the end of this year; entry into service of the latter between 2020 and 2026. They are the largest warships ever bought for the UK and – along with their core air component, the Lockheed Martin F-35B fighter – will be critical to the UK’s capacity for the next half century to engage in direct military action, deter aggression, bolster 110 HMS Prince of Wales

humanitarian aid and support diplomatic initiatives around the globe.

By the end of 2020, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) aims to have one squadron of F-35Bs flying from HMS Queen Elizabeth in tandem with the new Lockheed Martin/Thales Merlin CROWSNEST airborne surveillance and control system (ASaC). This will provide the initial Carrier Strike capability in readiness for HMS Queen Elizabeth’s maiden operational Carrier Strike deployment in 2021. To make this happen, a mammoth integration task by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance – the partnering relationship between BAE Systems, Babcock, Thales and the UK MOD – lies ahead.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LA(PHOT) KEITH MORGAN

Nick Cook offers a description of the aircraft that will fly from HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LPHOT LOUISE GEORGE

BAE SYSTEMS IMAGE

Opposite: The F-35B is the main weapon system on both HM Ships Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth.

Above: The Merlin CROWSNEST will offer the aircraft carriers enhanced ISR capabilities. Left: Anti-submarine warfare will be carried out by the Merlin HM.2 helicopters.

The 2015 UK Strategic Defence and Security Review confirmed plans by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to buy 138 F-35Bs, the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Lightning. The aircraft are scheduled to achieve their UK initial operating capability (IOC) “land” during 2019 and IOC “maritime” in 2020.

The original ambition was for the ships to operate a fixed-wing “heavy profile” embarking 36 F-35Bs with four supporting rotary-wing CROWSNEST platforms providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) outputs. As part of the CEPP capability, however, a typical aircraft load under a “Maritime Force Protection Package” mix would translate into an embarked capability of 24 F-35Bs, five CROWSNEST ISR platforms and nine Merlin HM.2 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platforms.

Under an alternate “Littoral Manoeuvre Package,” this would see the core 24 F-35B component supplemented with a mix of RAF Boeing Chinook heavy lift helicopters, Leonardo (AgustaWestland) Merlin HC.4/4A medium lift helicopters, AW159 Wildcat multi-role helicopters and British Army Boeing AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopters. In this force mix configuration, the Apaches and Wildcats would provide protection and support for the transport helicopters. The latter would be tasked with the rapid deployment of two companies of Royal Marines in

an initial assault during expeditionary operations.

Under a contract awarded late last year, Thales was chosen by prime contractor Lockheed Martin to design and manufacture “role-fit” equipment for the Merlin Mk2 fleet under the CROWSNEST programme. CROWSNEST represents the new generation of the Searchwater radar and Cerberus mission system that is deployed on the RN’s present Sea King Mk7 ASaC fleet, which will retire to make way for CROWSNEST in 2018.

CROWSNEST will deliver, inter alia, a vastly improved target identification capability, an ability to “library-match”

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CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LPO(PHOT) SI ETHELL

Top: Leonardo Wildcats will deliver force protection to the two carriers.

Above: Merlin HC.4/4A troopcarrying helicopters are being “marinised” for ship operations, with features such as folding tails and main rotors.

LEONARDO COMPANY PHOTO

airborne contacts and an inverse SAR mode to generate a two-dimensional high-resolution image of the target.

The CROWSNEST contract reinforces the critical role played by the Merlin HM.2 ASW fleet, which entered service in 2014 as an upgrade of the original 1990s-era Merlin Mk1. Beyond its role as a sub-hunter, the Merlin HM.2 will provide the carriers with a round-the-clock maritime patrol and interdiction capability – the type is armed with Sting Ray torpedoes, Mk11 depth-charges and a .50-calibre machine-gun – in addition to troop-ferrying, casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), search and rescue and other contingency missions.

Meantime, delivery of 25 Merlin HC.4/4A troop-carrying helicopters to the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force under the UK MOD’s Merlin Life Sustainment Programme (MSLP) contract, carried out by Leonardo, will take place between this year and 2020, following the successful first flight of a Mk4 from the contractor’s Yeovil facility in October 2016. The Mk4/4A is fully “marinised” for ship operations, with features that

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY PO(PHOT) SI ETHELL

A rocket-armed Sea Fury FB.II is catapulted from HMS Glory during Korean War operations in 1951.

The Korean War saw more than 23,000 aircraft sorties launched from Royal Navy aircraft carriers.

include automatic main rotor blade-folding and tail-fold and the same cockpit as the Merlin Mk2. The common cockpit comprises five 10” x 8” integrated display units, two touch-screen displays for controlling the aircraft’s systems and mission equipment, and two cursor control devices for the tactical displays.

The three other aircraft types earmarked for the two carriers are the Chinook, the Wildcat and the Apache. To certify and integrate these helicopters – particularly the Chinook and the Apache as the two non-maritime types – is a complex undertaking requiring contractors and the MOD to conduct detailed and evidenced assessments before they can be fully cleared to operate on board HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales without presenting significant risk to all the other embarked users.

Chinooks are used for trooping, resupply and battlefield CASEVAC and for carrying internal or under-slung loads. They can carry up to 55 troops and/or up to 10 tonnes of freight. The Wildcat is the latest generation of multi-role helicopter, which, in its navy guise, will replace the Lynx Mk8. It has a more powerful engine that allows it to be flown in extreme conditions all year round. It is also equipped with a more robust fuselage and a new radar system that provides 360-degree surveillance. Armed with Sting Ray torpedoes, a doormounted .50-calibre heavy machine-gun and new light and heavy versions of the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW) missile, the Wildcat will be used in the anti-surface warfare, force protection and counter-piracy roles.

When used in the troop transport role, Royal Air Force Chinooks can carry up to 55 fully equipped soldiers.

The Apache attack helicopter, which can operate in all weathers, day or night, to detect, classify and prioritise up to 256 targets in a matter of seconds, will be joined in 2022 in UK Joint Helicopter Command service by the AH-64E. This version, 50 of which were ordered by the UK MOD last year, will carry more weapons and is more fuel-efficient, allowing it to operate in its Littoral Manoeuvre role off the two carriers for longer in more demanding conditions.

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HMS PRINCE OF WALES – A PROUD LINEAGE The first battleship to be lost to air-launched attack at sea, HMS Prince of Wales had a short but glorious life. Chuck Oldham tells the tale and reveals the other Royal Navy ships to bear the illustrious name.

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MS Prince of Wales is quite rightly a famous and revered name in the Royal Navy (RN), with a lineage now extending four centuries. There have been ships named Prince of Wales going back to the 18th century, but the legacy of RN men of war bearing the name begins with a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line launched in 1765. This HMS Prince of Wales, broken up in 1783, was the first of six RN warships to bear the name. The second Prince of Wales was launched in 1794, a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line that served as Admiral Robert Calder’s flagship at the Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1805. The third Prince of Wales was a 38-gun transport purchased in 1795 and still in commission in 1801. The next was a product of the age of steam, one of a class of six screw-propelled, 121-gun, three-deck, first-rate ships of the line. She was renamed Britannia in 1869, becoming a cadet training ship at Dartmouth after her engines were removed. She was broken up in 1916.

The first battleship HMS Prince of Wales was a 14,140-tonne Formidable-class pre-dreadnought commissioned in May 1904. Her armament included two twin 12-inch gun turrets, 12 6-inch guns, four torpedo tubes, and 16 12-pounder guns. She served throughout the First World War, from the English Channel to the Dardanelles and the Adriatic, but as a pre-dreadnought, she soon became obsolete. She was decommissioned before being sold for scrap a scant year after war’s end, in November 1919.

The hunt for Bismarck The most well-known ship to sail under the name HMS Prince of Wales was the King George V-class battleship. Her short and eventful life spanned the world’s oceans and some of the most famous naval engagements of all time. Commissioned on Jan. 19, 1941, HMS Prince of Wales displaced 44,500 tonnes fully loaded, and was armed with 10 14-inch guns – eight of them in two quadruple turrets, and two more in a twin turret. In addition, she was equipped with 16 5.25-inch dual-purpose guns and 32 2-pounders. Her completion had been rushed due to the 116 HMS Prince of Wales

urgencies of war, and she was hurried into battle when the RN realised that the German battleship Bismarck had sortied with orders to destroy British merchant ship convoys.

Having just completed builder’s trials and still far from being fully worked up, HMS Prince of Wales departed in company with the battlecruiser HMS Hood on May 22, 1941, to search for the Bismarck and her consort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. She was so new that civilian contractors were still aboard correcting defects discovered during builder’s trials.

In the early morning hours of May 24, 1941, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood intercepted the German task force. At a tactical disadvantage because of their angle of approach, and with the vulnerable Hood with her thin deck amour in the lead, disaster struck only 10 minutes into the battle. Plunging fire from the Bismarck’s 15-inch guns pierced the Hood’s deck amour and apparently detonated her magazines. The battlecruiser broke in two and both halves of the ship quickly sank in the frigid waters. There were only three survivors. HMS Prince of Wales now found herself under fire from both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. She took seven heavy shell hits, but in turn struck a blow that would prove

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OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPH, NOW IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Top: HMS Prince of Wales photographed in 1941, sometime prior to her May 24, 1941, engagement with the German battleship Bismarck. Right: Prime Minister Winston Churchill walks the deck of HMS Prince of Wales anchored at Argentia, Newfoundland, where he was meeting with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to draft the Atlantic Charter.

the undoing of Bismarck. Commander of the German operation, Admiral Günther Lütjens, had inexplicably neglected three opportunities to top off the battleship’s fuel bunkers before her sortie into the Atlantic. Now, 14-inch shells from HMS Prince of Wales ruptured fuel tanks aboard the German battleship, and damaged boiler and turbo-generator rooms. She began to leave a trail of oil, but even worse, could no longer access some 1,000 tonnes of fuel in her forward tanks, which had either become unreachable due to damage or contaminated by salt water. Not only had HMS Prince of Wales ended Bismarck’s mission to raid British convoys, but by depriving her of fuel, had left the admiral only one option – to make for a French port for repairs. HMS Prince of Wales, along with RN cruisers and destroyers, then shadowed Bismarck until other RN forces could close in. While Prince of Wales had to break off the action in order to refuel and repair her damage, she had done her job. Bismarck was engaged and destroyed while fleeing for the French coast.

Hosting Winston Churchill After being repaired at Rosyth, HMS Prince of Wales played another important role when she carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill to Argentia, Newfoundland, to meet with American President Franklin D. Roosevelt in August 1941. The end result of the meeting was the Atlantic Charter, which defined the Allied goals for the postwar world and became the basis for the modern United Nations.

The next month, HMS Prince of Wales was in the Mediterranean during Operation

Halberd, escorting a vital convoy to Malta to resupply the besieged island and shooting down several attacking Italian aircraft on the way.

In late October, she was dispatched to the Far East as a deterrent against the Japanese. She was to have formed Force Z with the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable, but Indomitable ran aground off Jamaica, and therefore Prince of Wales and Repulse had to proceed without air cover. The two arrived in Singapore on Dec. 2, 1941, and were tied up in the harbour when word came of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Force Z sortied on Dec. 8, initially to attack Japanese transports off Kota Bharu. However, they were later signaled (wrongly) that a Japanese landing was taking place at Kuantan, and shaped course accordingly.

Without HMS Indomitable’s defensive shield of aircraft, the capital ships were dreadfully exposed to attack, and on the morning of Dec. 10, long-range Japanese bombers armed with bombs and torpedoes attacked in several waves. Within two hours, both warships were lost, becoming the first two capital ships sunk by air attack on the open ocean, and a sad epitaph to the age of the battleship. The future would now belong to aircraft carriers.

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BRITISH AIRCRAFT CARRIER BATTLES – FROM TARANTO TO THE FALKLANDS WAR Two of the most famous British aircraft carrier actions – the Falklands War and the Battle of Taranto – have proven the unique versatility of this class of warship, explains Mark Daly.

R

oyal Navy (RN) aircraft carriers have been constantly active since the end of the Second World War. In the Korean conflict of 1950 to 1953, RN aircraft carriers Glory, Ocean, Theseus and Triumph mounted 23,000 aircraft sorties. In 1956, five carriers were deployed in the controversial Suez campaign. This was followed by carrier deployments off Oman in 1958, and Kuwait in 1961, and further deployments during the Indonesian confrontation (1963 to 1966). There were also operations off Africa in 1964 and 1966.

Long after the ending of Britain’s colonial attachments, carrier operations have continued, often as part of the NATO Alliance, in the Adriatic for operations over Bosnia and Kosovo during the 1990s, and later for deploying helicopters to Sierra Leone in 2000. They were also used to support forces in Afghanistan, enforce a no-fly zone over southern Iraq and prosecute an amphibious assault on the Iraqi Al Faw peninsula in 2003.

The Falklands War Few imagined that Royal Navy carriers would ever be engaged in intensive warfare in the South Atlantic, but that is what happened after the Falkland Islands were invaded by Argentina on April 2, 1982.

Just three days later, two very different aircraft carriers departed 118 HMS Prince of Wales

Portsmouth naval base: HMS Hermes, a converted Centaurclass of 28,000 tonnes dating from 1959, and the modern light carrier HMS Invincible of 20,000 tonnes. They steamed south with a task force of surface warships. HMS Hermes was the flagship for the force and had embarked an air group of 12 Sea Harriers from 800 and 809 Squadrons, with Sea King HAS 5 helicopters from 826 Squadron, and carrying A Company 40 Commando Royal Marines.

HMS Invincible’s air group was initially eight, later 10, Sea Harriers of 801 and 809 Squadrons and Sea King HAS 5s of 820 Squadron.

The Falkland Islands, 8,100 nautical miles (nm) from the United Kingdom, are just 400 nm off the coast of Argentina, from where aircraft could constantly be despatched to attack the task force. The main role for the carriers was going to be establishing air

CROWN COPYRIGHT PHOTOS

This photo: HMS Hermes in the South Atlantic during the Falklands conflict, 1982. Sea Harrier FRS.1s are ranged on deck, with more Sea Harriers and RAF Harrier GR.3s parked alongside Hermes’ island. HM Ships Hermes and Invincible gained air superiority over the Falkland Islands to enable the land campaign to proceed. Below: HMS Illustrious relieves HMS Invincible shortly after the conclusion of the Falklands conflict.

Invincible spent 166 days at sea without putting into harbour.

superiority to enable a landing force to be disembarked, and to diminish the capabilities of the Argentinian occupying forces.

HMS Hermes made her first move on May 1, launching 12 Sea Harriers to attack Argentinian-held airfields at Stanley and Goose Green.

For six weeks until mid-June 1982, an intensive campaign was fought, with Hermes and Invincible positioned with a screen of escorting warships to the east of the Falkland

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A Fairey Swordfish drops a torpedo during exercises. Fleet Air Arm Fairey Swordfish pilots staged a devastating night time surprise attack using innovative techniques to launch torpedo attacks against the Italian fleet in their home port of Taranto.

Islands. The two carriers launched combat air patrols with Sea Harriers, amounting to more than 1,100 sorties. The Sea Harrier squadrons were reinforced with more aircraft and later joined by 10 RAF Harriers based on HMS Hermes and together these mounted more than 200 ground attack missions. At the same time, anti-submarine patrols were constantly maintained by the Sea Kings, and Special Forces parties inserted onshore.

It was a hard-fought campaign, with four British warships, including the destroyers HMS Sheffield and HMS Coventry, sunk by air attacks. As the ships transporting the Amphibious Task Group of British Army and Royal Marines units started to assemble in San Carlos Water between East and West Falkland, the attacks by waves of Argentine aircraft intensified. Between the landing of forces which started on May 21 and Argentine surrender on June 14 a fierce air war continued. Sea Harrier fighters from the two carriers were credited with the destruction of 20 attacking Argentinian aircraft.

It was the first time that vertical/short take off and landing (V/STOL) fighters had been operationally flown from ships in combat. HMS Hermes had served with distinction as task force headquarters, and HMS Invincible, which had only completed its trials shortly before the deployment, was to spend 166 days continuously at sea without putting into harbour. The Falklands campaign did much to revalidate the power of the aircraft carrier as the key component of expeditionary warfare. With V/STOL fighters launching from ski-jump-equipped decks, it continued the Royal Navy tradition of introducing new technology for operating aircraft at sea.

Battle of Taranto The RN and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) have also been responsible for pioneering

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NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND

A rocket-armed Sea Fury FB.II is catapulted from HMS Glory during Korean War operations in 1951.

The Korean War saw more than 23,000 aircraft sorties launched from Royal Navy aircraft carriers.

many of the original concepts of carrier operations, the most famous example dating back to the Second World War. The first time that warships in a defended homeport were attacked by a force of strike aircraft launched from a carrier was the attack from HMS Illustrious on the Italian naval base at Taranto on Nov. 11, 1940. Taranto on the southeast coast of Italy was home port to a concentration of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers – posing a constant threat to Allied convoys crossing the Mediterranean to North Africa and Malta.

In order to disguise the forthcoming raid, a series of distinct movements was

made by warships and merchant vessels to give the impression that standard convoy protection duties were being performed. Under this cover, HMS Illustrious launched a force of 21 Fairey Swordfish aircraft drawn from 813, 815, 819 and 824 Squadrons at 180 nm range.

Approaching Taranto at night in two waves, the Swordfish attacked with torpedoes and bombs, after dropping flares to silhouette their targets. In the shallow waters of the enclosed harbour at Taranto torpedo attacks were believed to be impossible, as weapons dropped from aircraft dive deeply, but a technique had been developed to allow Swordfish aircraft to launch the Mark XII aerial torpedo in a flat attitude at low level. Despite fierce anti-aircraft fire from hundreds of guns, a shield of barrage balloons, and anti-torpedo nets, 11 torpedoes were launched, sinking one battleship and heavily damaging two others, while several cruisers and destroyers were damaged by bombs. Taranto was no longer a viable major base, and the Italian navy was forced to redeploy its ships to Naples, a shift of power in the Mediterranean.

Royal Navy aircraft carriers went on to fight in a range of actions from the Atlantic to the Pacific, against the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, from escort carriers on convoy protection, in Allied invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and southern France, in the Aegean, and towards the end of the war in operations against Japan as part of the British Pacific Fleet.

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LESSONS FROM THE FALKLANDS WAR Operation Corporate, the expeditionary campaign to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentinian forces, produced insights that are political, economic, tactical and strategic, Simon Michell explains.

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he most obvious lesson is that an expeditionary campaign that culminates in action more than 8,000 nautical miles from home bases requires a maritime task group that is self-sustaining and able to protect first itself and then the disembarked forces used to mount the land-based operation. Without doubt, the operation could not have been contemplated without aircraft carriers. The amphibious assault on San Carlos Bay would have been nigh on impossible without the combat air patrols that prevented the Argentinians from coordinated counterattacks by air against the landing forces to prevent them from consolidating the beach head. An aircraft carrier group, however, needs escorts in the form of frigates, destroyers, and submarines to prevent enemy attacks on the group, especially the carrier(s).

Countering aerial attack Once the Royal Navy (RN) carrier group had reached the Falklands, ships began to face aerial attack from the Argentinian air force’s Skyhawk, Mirage III, and Dagger fast jets, as well as Argentinian navy Super Étendards and Skyhawks equipped with free-fall bombs and the now-infamous Exocet anti-ship missile. The outer ring of defence against these attacking aircraft comprised two squadrons of V/STOL Sea Harrier FRS.1s aboard HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible. The ‘SHARs’ performed very well, shooting down more than 20 Argentinian aircraft, but they were 124 HMS Prince of Wales

simply too few. The most Sea Harriers the two aircraft carriers embarked at any time was 28, meaning the outer combat air patrol never numbered more than four aircraft, each employing the short-ranged, although excellent, Blue Fox radar and armed with only two of the superlative AIM-9L Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles. By contrast, a single large deck aircraft carrier of the Queen Elizabeth class can embark an air group of up to 40 aircraft, including two squadrons of fighters, with a surge capacity of three, as well as antisubmarine and utility helicopters, and crucially, Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft.

The need for AEW A key lesson learned was the need for a task force to have an effective AEW capability in order to give early warning of impending air attack. During the conflict, the Task Force’s Sea Harriers operated at a severe disadvantage due to the lack of any organic AEW aircraft aboard the carriers.

When the Gannet AEW aircraft was withdrawn from the RN fleet as a cost-cutting measure, a vulnerability was introduced that would have dire consequences. The most immediate solution was to equip Sea King helicopters with Searchwater radars in a “dustbin” fairing on the port side of the fuselage.

The CROWSNEST Merlin is a 21st century development of the same idea.

Within the outer defence ring, the destroyers and frigates of the Task Force lacked “3D”

COURTESY OF FLY NAVY HERITAGE TRUST

Royal Navy Sea Harrier FRS.1s and RAF Harrier GR.3s aboard HMS Hermes in the South Atlantic. While the V/STOL jets performed superbly, they were too few in number due to the small size of the aircraft carriers upon which they were embarked.

radars that would supply range, bearing, and altitude of incoming targets, allowing Sea Harriers to be more accurately vectored against raids. While US Navy escorts of the time had 3D radars, their Royal Navy counterparts, for unknown reasons, did not. Their radars also lacked moving-target indicator (MTI) capability, which limited their ability to distinguish low-flying aircraft against ground clutter.

Once the outer air defences had been pierced, the three missile systems employed by

ships of the task force enjoyed varying degrees of success. Sea Cat, the oldest system, and mounted aboard 17 ships, was simply outclassed.

More than 80 missiles were launched against a single confirmed kill. Sea Dart, credited with seven kills for 26 fired, was intended for use in an open-ocean environment against Soviet bombers, and had a very slow response and reload time. These were not good system attributes in the event, facing repeated attacks at low level among mountainous headlands. The Sea Wolf SAM performed particularly well, shooting down between three and six aircraft in only eight launches, but there were only three Sea Wolf-equipped frigates in the entire Task Force.

Naval gun bombardment The naval gun, thought obsolete in some corners, deleted from older ships and not even included as a part of the armament of the then-new Broadsword-class frigates, turned out to be vitally

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MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO

important to fire support ashore. It was rediscovered that destroyers and frigates had to be true multi-mission combatants, capable of carrying out a range of tasks, rather than single-mission assets within the framework of NATO commitments and responsibilities. Finally, the consequences of a lack of close-in or terminal defence systems such as the Goalkeeper or Phalanx weapon systems became evident. Today’s RN destroyers and frigates embody these lessons, with state-of-the-art 3D radars and missiles as good as any in the world, and both RN and RFA ships are fitted with close-in weapon systems for terminal defence.

Much has been made of the use of aluminium in ships sunk or damaged during the conflict, but in reality it had little to do with losses. Both Sheffield and Coventry, for example, had a steel hull and superstructure,

Top: Following the Falklands War, HMS Invincible took over as the Royal Navy’s flagship, and saw further action during campaigns in the Balkans and Iraq. Above: A Royal Navy Sea Harrier in the hover above MV Atlantic Conveyor, which transported RAF Harriers and RN Sea Harrier replacements to the war zone. The V/STOL capabilities of the Harriers enabled them to operate at various times from rough airfield sites ashore, as well as the flight decks of a range of ships.

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and the Amazon-class frigates lost would have succumbed to their damage whether constructed of aluminium or not. Catastrophic damage had less to do with construction materials than did outright size. Of all the things that go into the building of a ship, steel remains one of the cheapest. Yet the policy of the day was to squeeze a quart into a pint pot, and ships had no room to grow over their lifetimes, nor did they have the size or margin of buoyancy to absorb serious damage.

One of the clearest lessons of the Falklands was that smaller, cheaper, less well-armed, single-purpose ships are much more vulnerable to attack and loss. Cost-saving measures on the sizes of ships, on weapons or on other systems are a false economy when an entire ship, built at enormous cost, may be lost due to their failings.

Fixtures and fittings There was also a lot of combustible material used in the ships’ furnishings as well as all the electrical wiring and insulation demanded in modern ships. The fires caused by the burning fixtures and fittings poured out thick black smoke that not only posed a hazard to those on board, but also made it difficult to prosecute effective fire-fighting operations.

The design of the fire control systems on board the stricken ships was also found to be somewhat inefficient, as was the training that the fire-fighting teams had received. Since 1982, Royal Navy shipbuilding has incorporated the lessons with vigorous damage control training and a range of adaptations made to contain fire and smoke and make the business of putting the fire out easier.

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Another critical lesson that was reinforced during the conflict was the importance of land-based airfields and having an ability to put them out of action via a combination of long-range air assaults and attack from the task group aircraft as well as offshore bombardment.

There were many lessons learned in the Falklands War of 1982 on, under, and above the sea. But, perhaps the single most important one was the vital role played by the aircraft carriers, HM Ships Hermes and Invincible, not just to maritime operations but right across the joint spectrum. HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship Queen Elizabeth will maintain that vital capability for another 50 years, not only to project stability worldwide, but also to defend the territories of the United Kingdom, however far away they may be.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY POA(PHOT) PAUL SMITH

The Falklands conflict highlighted the need for an organic AEW capability which was initially introduced with the Sea King Mk7 (pictured). The new Merlin CROWSNEST is a derivative of that earlier system.

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CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF CARRIER AIR POWER Commander Sue Eagles, Communications Director for the nation’s Fly Navy Heritage Trust, celebrates this year’s centenary of carrier aviation and the golden thread that links Great Britain’s long and distinguished carrier aviation heritage with that of the future.

T

he official naming of HMS Prince of Wales on Sept. 8, 2017, is a pivotal moment for the United Kingdom (UK) particularly following HMS Queen Elizabeth’s successful sea trials in August. The second of the new Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carriers to be built for the Royal Navy, HMS Prince of Wales, heralds a new era in carrier aviation and is a clear demonstration of Britain’s commitment to a world-class carrier strike programme.

Britain’s great naval aviation heritage is one of the most remarkable stories of the past 100 years, and it is fitting that HMS Prince of Wales has been formally “launched” in this year’s centenary of carrier aviation, marking the UK’s long and distinguished history of aircraft carrier innovation, design and development.

The lessons of naval aviation history No one can deny in the present age that air power is the predominant medium used to most effectively inflict a decisive blow on an enemy. The challenges and threats faced by our globalised world have never been greater and it will be carrier-borne aircraft, able to operate at sea for long periods, fully worked-up in the QEC aircraft carriers, that will be critical to the United Kingdom and our allies in the decades ahead.

130 HMS Prince of Wales

Working with our existing international partners and expanding our partnership horizons, Britain will need to play a part showing again that its reach is long, with a fist at the end of it capable of striking with decisive force.

With their great mobility and flexibility, HM Ships Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales and their embarked aircraft will unequivocally prove their value to our nation.

The lessons of naval aviation history have demonstrated carrier aviation to be a driving force in technological change and development, and a cornerstone of our national air power capability.

CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO

US NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND PHOTO

Main photo: HMS Hermes, the world’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier. Inset: After making the first landing aboard a moving ship, Squadron Commander EH Dunning is pictured in his Sopwith Pup during his illfated second attempt to land on the flyingoff deck of HMS Furious.

RN aircraft carrier innovations The Royal Navy championed the aircraft carrier in the First World War (WWI), and HMS Argus, the first carrier with a full-length flight deck and large compartment below to act as a hangar, was launched 100 years ago in December 1917. She was designed to launch a torpedo strike against the German High Seas Fleet and thus take control of the North Sea in one stroke; however, WWI ended before that attack could

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BAE SYSTEMS PHOTO CROWN COPYRIGHT/ROYAL NAVY PHOTO

be carried out. Nevertheless, the Royal Navy continued to develop the concept of carrier strike, and during the Second World War (WWII) executed it with awe-inspiring success in 1940 at Taranto against the Italian Battle Fleet in the Mediterranean.

After WWII, when it seemed that no carrier could operate the new jet aircraft, the legendary British Naval Test Pilot, Captain Eric (Winkle) Brown CBE DSC AFC, landed the first jet, a Sea Vampire (LZ551/G), on an aircraft carrier (HMS Ocean) in December 1945. Having been congratulated by all on board, he then got back into the aircraft to become the first man ever to fly a jet aircraft off a carrier.

Over the next decade, the Royal Navy produced the three inventions that revolutionised modern fast-jet carrier

Top: In his DH Sea Vampire, Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown makes the world’s first jet carrier landing aboard HMS Ocean. Above: HMS Ark Royal was the last Royal Navy aircraft carrier equipped with the angled deck, optical landing sight, and steam catapult, RN innovations that allowed her to operate fast jets. With her decommissioning, it was thought the RN would lose this capability. Instead, the Royal Navy innovated once again with the ski-jump equipped Invincible-class, operating the V/STOL Sea Harrier.

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Lt HRH The Prince of Wales beside a Wessex 5 he flew from the carrier HMS Hermes in 1975.

operations – the angled deck, the steam catapult and the mirror landing sight.

When it seemed that carriers had become too costly for the UK to deploy, the Royal Navy showed that it could still take modern aircraft to sea using Invincible-class aircraft carriers and the V/STOL (vertical/short take-off and landing) Sea Harrier.

Without the Sea Harrier, and another British invention, the ski-jump, the successful Falklands operation in 1982, and others since, would not have been possible. No other nation can match this record of technical innovation paralleled by operational success.

Fleet Air Arm Royal Pilot

COURTESY FLY NAVY HERITAGE TRUST

The development of RN carrier aviation Early attempts to land on a moving ship were carried out from the converted cruiser, HMS Furious, on Aug. 2, 1917 when Squadron Commander EH Dunning landed a Sopwith Pup on the 200-foot landing deck in the seas at Scapa Flow, off the Orkney Islands. Tragically attempting it again days later, Dunning was killed – but he had led the way.

With the arrival of the first RN aircraft carrier fitted with a full-length flush deck, HMS Argus, a few months later, the concept of carrier aviation was well under way.

The first carrier with an “island,” HMS Eagle, emerged in 1920, to be followed in 1924 by HMS Hermes, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier.

She had 15 aircraft and a speed of 25 knots, and in 1938 the cutting edge of carrier aviation began to bite when HMS Ark Royal entered service with 60 aircraft. The next HMS Ark Royal, an Audaciousclass carrier decommissioned in 1979, would be the last RN warship to deploy conventional fast jets.

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the Fairey Swordfish, the mainstay of Britain’s early carrier offensive operations, was used in all theatres of the war. It was in the Battle of the Atlantic, however, flying from the pitching and rolling decks of small escort carriers, that this

Members of the Royal Family have a longstanding tradition of flying in the services, and His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales served as a front-line pilot in Royal Navy carriers in the 1970s.

HMS Prince of Wales is the eighth Royal Navy warship to bear the name Prince of Wales, and HRH The Prince of Wales enthusiastically gave the Royal Seal of approval, almost certainly with fond and proud memories of his flying career with the FAA. HRH The Prince of Wales completed his flying training on the Wessex 5 helicopter at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, in Somerset, in 1974 winning the Double Diamond trophy and leading a flypast of 16 Wessex aircraft on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of 707 Naval Air Squadron. He went on to front-line service with 845 Naval Air Squadron, a Wessex 5 Royal Marines Commando Squadron operating from the aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes. An accomplished and experienced pilot, he left HMS Hermes in September 1975 having gained over 500 flying hours and 200 deck landings.

Prince Charles’ brother, HRH The Duke of York, served for over 20 years in the FAA, flying anti-submarine Sea King helicopters and seeing active service in HMS Invincible during the Falklands Conflict in 1982.

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A Fairey Swordfish of the Fly Navy Heritage Trust.

136 HMS Prince of Wales

Preserving Britain’s Great Naval Aviation Heritage

The Fly Navy Heritage Trust relies on public donations to restore, maintain and fly a collection of historic naval aircraft bringing the remarkable story of naval flying to life for future generations. The Navy Wings collection, which includes two Fairey Swordfish and two Hawker Sea Furies, can be seen at air shows and events around the country providing the golden thread linking the past with the future. To find out more and support Britain’s great naval aviation heritage, visit navywings. org.uk

FLY NAVY HERITAGE TRUST PHOTO

venerable fabric and wood biplane really came into its own. The UK’s narrow escape from defeat in the Battle of the Atlantic was due in no small part to the Swordfish crews of the FAA patrolling millions of square miles of sea, stemming U-boat attacks on merchant ships. Their desperate work continued for the entire six years of the war, helping to secure eventual victory, with the true importance of their contribution only beginning to be recognised today.

Over the next 70 years the striking power of naval aircraft was to develop at such a pace that later aircraft in the evolutionary story were hardly recognisable beside their forebears of 1939. The birth of the jet age in the 1960s and 70s, and the radical new designs it spawned, saw the top speed of naval fighters rise from a “sedate” 600 mph to a blistering 1,400 mph within a few years.

100 years after HMS Argus was commissioned, the naming Ceremony of HMS Prince of Wales not only reflects this unrivalled tradition of pioneering naval engineering, but with her revolutionary F-35B jets, she and her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth will be two of the most modern and powerful aircraft carriers in the world, providing the UK with a formidable and highly versatile defence capability to meet the uncertain demands of another century.