A GLOBAL FORCE 2012/13
The Fleet Air Arm Message from Rear Admiral Russ Harding OBE, Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Aviation and Carriers)
"...Looking further out into the future, the FAA is preparing itself for the introduction of the two new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers that will come into service at the end of the decade. Despite the withdrawal of the Harrier and the disbandment of the Naval Strike Wing, there has been no break in fixed-wing pilot recruitment and training. A small number of RN pilots are flying F-18 Hornets operationally with the US Navy. Personnel are also heavily engaged in the F-35B Lightning II programme with RN pilots and maintainers in the first training unit, VMFAT-501, at Eglin Air Force Base. Together, the RN and RAF have developed a comprehensive plan for the introduction of the Lightning II. We are standing up F-35B maintenance units from both the RAF and RN. Some of these men and women have transferred to a US-based training establishment which may be there for up to six years before transferring back to the UK. In addition, we are now in the process of setting up the test and evaluation squadron to be followed by the UK Operational Conversion Unit...."
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Introducing the Queen Elizabeth class with its Lightning II F-35Bs Martin Temperley
"HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH and her sister ship PRINCE OF WALES are the largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy. The first ship, QUEEN ELIZABETH, a 65,000-ton super carrier, is scheduled to enter the water in 2014. Equipped with F-35B Lightning II multi-role jets and Merlin helicopters, the carriers will also be capable of operating British Army Apache and Royal Air force Chinook helicopters. The first ship is scheduled Introducing the Queen Elizabeth class with its Lightning II F-35Bs to be handed over to the Royal Navy in 2016. At sites in the United Kingdom and United States, preparations are well under way for the introduction of the F-35B, while the carrier’s procedures are also being perfected....
...PREPARING FOR THE CARRIERS
One of the first steps in preparing for the Queen Elizabeth class carriers has been the opening in 2012 of an engineering development facility for the mission system, which is the carrier’s nerve centre. It combines systems for air-traffic control, navigation, tactical picture compilation, communications and mission planning for the F-35 fighters and for the Merlin helicopters. This facility, at shore base HMS COLLINGWOOD in Hampshire, is completing engineering tests and trials using the same equipment that will be fitted to QUEEN ELIZABETH in Rosyth, Scotland. One of the ship’s unique features is two, instead of one, ‘island‘ superstructures on the flight deck, and the mission system will occupy the rearmost island, which is devoted to flying operations.
Being located in HMS COLLINGWOOD, it allows Royal Navy trainees to take part in large-scale trials from the start. The Royal Navy says: “By manning every Operations Room position with Royal Navy personnel ensures the equipment can be tested and loaded to its full capacity – something that has never been done before with previous mission systems.”
The first classes of UK maintenance personnel to work with the F-35B have completed courses at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and one pilot each from the Royal Navy and RAF started instructor pilot training on the F-35B in late 2012, making them the first international instructors trained on the fighter.
Even after the ending of the Joint Harrier force in January 2011, when the Royal Navy’s 800 Naval Air Squadron disbanded, the Fleet Air Arm kept a core of almost 40 fixed-wing pilots, several of whom have been assigned to training programmes with the US Navy and are keeping their skills sharp by flying the F/A-18C Super Hornet fighter. Some of those pilots will go on to fly the F-35B, and more pilots will be recruited.
Royal Navy maintainers began training on the F-35B at the Academic Training Center at Eglin in July 2012. When the F-35B is operated from the new carrier, Royal Navy personnel in the trade of Air Engineering Technician will be in the ship to look after the aircraft. This trade covers mechanical, electrical, avionics or weapons specialities. Trade courses on the F-35, which are first a matter of ‘instructing the instructors’, are being steadily stepped up during 2013.
The ship’s company has already started to assemble, with a team of eight Royal Navy personnel wearing the cap tally ‘Queen Elizabeth’ working with the Aircraft Carrier Alliance shipbuilders at Rosyth since 2012. They are developing operating procedures and routines in advance of when the ship is handed over, which is scheduled for 2016.
The second ship in class is HMS PRINCE OF WALES, now under construction and scheduled to be commissioned in 2018. Before then, in 2015, further orders for the F-35B are expected to follow the 48 currently in the programme, and the UK’s supercarrier force will rapidly become operational. The F-35B will provide a faster route to carrier operational capability than the conventional take-off and landing F-35C, which was once schemed. These would have required catapults and arrestor wires to be fitted to the carrier, delaying its entry into service."
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Carrier strike Nick Childs
"...Another significant milestone occurred in October, when the first members of the ship’s company of HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH arrived in Rosyth. The eight crew members were led by Captain Simon Petitt. It is expected that, by the end of 2013, that this number will have grown to between 75 and 80 people. It will be the job of Captain Petitt and his growing team to learn about the ship and her technology, and to write the operating policy and procedures that will enable her to come into service in 2020....
...F-35B DELIVERIES BEGIN
Also significant was the delivery of Britain’s first F-35B, in a ceremony in Fort Worth, Texas, in July – an event that was attended attended by Philip Hammond. Despite the U-turn on the F-35 variant, the US Navy has stuck to its offer to provide pilot training and other carrier crew opportunities, so that the British can maintain carrier-operating skills. The French Navy will also offer what assistance it can from its own carrier capability.
Yet, with Britain for the moment still committed to buying only 48 F-35s initially, in a joint project with both the RN and the RAF, debate continued behind the scenes over operational issues. How many jets would normally be based at sea, and in what circumstances? Hammond appeared to settle that argument at the beginning of November. In a speech in London he declared that, “when deployed outside home waters, the new carrier will routinely have Lightning II jets embarked with personnel from both services”. He also confirmed that the normal number of jets would be 12, but with the ability to surge when necessary, and the QE class will be able to accommodate up to 36 F-35s.
Hammond also gave the strongest hint to date that the RN would keep both carriers available for operations. The cost of maintenance and a skeleton crew for the second ship would be, he said, a “modest” £70m. In his opinion, that was “an extremely good investment” to have a continuous carrier capability and the ability, “in extremis”, to surge to two carriers at a time of tension. For the RN, that would clearly be a tantalising prospect. But it is beginning to take on a tangible shape."
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F-35 Lightning II: plan B up and running Peter Grant
"...Once the first UK pilots have completed their training at Eglin, which began on 19 March 2013, they will be used as instructor pilots to train USMC colleagues, gaining experience and knowledge of the F-35 before undertaking Operational Test on a joint operational unit from mid 2014. Beyond Operational Test, the UK’s first operational squadron will form in the US from 2016 as part of a joint effort with the USMC, transitioning back to the UK in 2018. To be RAF Marham in Morfolk, it will work up as an independent unit aiming to attain a land-based Initial Operating Capability (IOC) by the end of 2018, which matches the arrival of the first of the new aircraft carriers, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, when embarked flying trials will get under way. It is planned to reach maritime IOC by 2020.
Speaking to Global Reach, Commodore Rick Thompson RN, head of the JCA Lighting Project Team at the MoD, was enthusiastic over not just the capability that Lightning II will bring to the UK, but also the joint nature in which it has been procured and is being introduced into service thus far. “The success of this small team spread across the US and UK is its truly Joint nature, delivering the OT aircraft on time and within budget,” he said. “It is impressive what can be achieved when you have a single joint vision with Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and US Marine Corps pilots, maintainers and logisticians all working together in a ‘purple’ environment to deliver a common, world-beating capability.”
The F-35, Thompson said, “is capable, survivable and based on commonality across all three variants to ensure affordability. It will contribute to the widest range of operational roles, ashore and afloat, and has been optimised for expeditionary warfare.”
Global Force 2013 (PDF 11Mb)