HMS Queen Elizabeth deals with ‘Hostile Aircraft’

[Boats]

HMS Queen Elizabeth deals with ‘Hostile Aircraft’
By: George Allison - UK Defense Journal News - 06-30-20
Re: https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/hms-...tile-aircraft/

Photo link: https://ukdj.imgix.net/10f137c00d316...e=td_1021x580&

HMS Queen Elizabeth and her F-35 jets have been training for any and all eventualities related to carrier strike operations.

F-35 jets launched from HMS Queen Elizabeth practiced air combat, dogfighting against Typhoons and other F-35s.

Video link: https://twitter.com/i/status/1278027109521375234

HMS Queen Elizabeth and her aircraft were recently joined by frigate HMS Kent and a nuclear submarine while on Exercise Crimson Ocean.

Exercise Crimson Ocean is geared towards putting the carrier and her F-35s through their paces.

The exercise is part of a journey to enable the carrier, her aircraft and her escorts to deploy operationally next year. Next year, HMS Queen Elizabeth will deploy with two frigates, two destroyers, a nuclear submarine and support vessels.

Commodore Michael Utley, Commander United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group, is reported by Save The Royal Navy here as saying that HMS Queen Elizabeth will be escorted by two Type 45 destroyers, two Type 23 frigates, a nuclear submarine, a Tide-class tanker and RFA Fort Victoria.

The ship will also carry 24 F-35B jets, including US Marine Corps aircraft, in addition to a number of helicopters.

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Prior to the deployment, it is understood that the Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group will go through a work-up trial off the west Hebrides range sometime in early 2021.

When asked about whether or not the UK has enough escorts to do this without impacting other commitment, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:

“The size and the scale of the escort depends on the deployments and the task that the carrier is involved in. If it is a NATO tasking in the north Atlantic, for example, you would expect an international contribution to those types of taskings, in the same way as we sometimes escort the French carrier or American carriers to make up that.

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It is definitely our intention, though, that the carrier strike group will be able to be a wholly UK sovereign deployable group. Now, it is probably not necessary to do that every single time we do it, depending on the tasking, but we want to do that and test doing it. Once we have done that, depending on the deployment, of course, we will cut our cloth as required.”

It is understood that the 2021 deployment will see the Carrier Strike Group sail in the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf and end up in the Pacific.

About this writer: George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval defence technology and cyber security matters.