The Many Trials of QUEEN ELIZABETH

HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH has put to sea for the next phase of her Sea Trials, a comprehensive process that takes her from being a magnificent but still civilian owned ship, to a fully worked up and operational commissioned warship. While the initial contractors trials were closely covered, due to subtle differences in policy (such as having to keep her AIS system on), these trials are being conducted in a bit more of a discrete manner. Despite this discretion, there is still a lot of positives we can take from the news that QEC is at sea.

The first and perhaps most important point is that QEC is at sea, and not quietly sinking alongside in Portsmouth dockyard. Despite an element of near hysteria over Christmas, when some more excitable publications breathlessly pronounced that she was sinking (LINK HERE), the ship has, as predicted, put to sea without dry docking and carried on with her programme as intended. The lesson that can perhaps be drawn here is, when a bunch of marine experts and former naval types say ‘there is nothing to worry about’ then perhaps there is nothing to worry about!

The next key point is that she is at sea with an airwing embarked in the form of approximately 8 aircraft onboard, in the form of different variants of Merlins, and a pair of Chinooks. While QEC operated a Merlin during her contractor sea trials, what is now happening is the stepping up of operations from very basic ‘launch recover’ type evolutions to instead focusing on how to safely operate a lot of very large aircraft at sea.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Be in no doubt, the Merlin and Chinook are very large aircraft indeed, and sticking 8 of them on QEC is a considerable statement by itself. Humphrey is a secret merlin junkie, owing mainly to his experiences in Iraq where he flew in the RAF variant a lot in some ‘challenging’ circumstances. One of his abiding memories is that of standing in the dark waiting for a Merlin to land at various HLS, and nearly being blown over by the downdraft it produces.

Authors own picture taken over Iraq in RAF Merlin

The Merlin is the size of a house in terms of height, is extremely large and takes up a lot of space. When you saw one in the hangar of an LPH or a CVS, you realised just how tight a squeeze it actually was to maintain and move them about. Even in their heyday, Humphrey cannot find any evidence of the CVS embarking more than 6 Merlins, and by all accounts it was a bit of a squeeze.

The Chinook is an enormous aircraft, and one that has never previously been able to go below decks into a hangar for maintenance. This had several implications – it made maintenance more difficult, as it all had to be conducted above decks in whatever weather conditions were prevalent. It meant that flight deck space was constrained, as a big chunk of it was taken up with the deck park, and it also made basic aircraft handling more challenging due to the big airframe in the corner. Look at images of HMS OCEAN embarking Chinooks and you’ll realise how much space the airframe takes up, and how this had a negative impact on the ships ability to embark and recover other aircraft.

By contrast QEC has embarked 8 of these types of helicopters, and yet the flight deck looks almost empty. The sight of a Chinook looking lost on the deck, suddenly no longer the dominant force it is used to being is incredibly powerful.

Its also an important capability message too – firstly because the RN is now able to embark Chinooks and put them below decks with their rotors spread - something that no other navy has done.

Secondly it highlights that given the UKs position as the worlds second largest operator of Chinook aircraft (60 airframes), and their key role in littoral manoeuvre, the QEC is going to be an astounding platform to move troops and equipment ashore when working as an LPH. This is a capability increase that is leaps and bounds beyond what HMS OCEAN could do, or any like for like LPH replacement either. Given the UK move to normalise its major maritime enabled troop carrying helicopters on Merlin and Chinook, it is helpful to remember just how good QEC will be as a host for LPH work.

Purple Planning

The next key point to note is that this seamless working up has not happened by accident or luck. It is the product of years of careful planning and organisation by the RN and RAF who have worked hard to make it happen. Operating multiple helicopter types at sea is not easy, requires a lot of forward planning to make sure the right people, parts and training is done and ready to support and sustain this work.

For the RN, this weeks embarkation is a resounding demonstration of the importance of Jointery – it is the product of all three Services working together through their own Services and Joint Helicopter Command to produce an airwing at sea that is already arguably the most capable helicopter airwing deployed in the world right now outside of the US Navy.

For those who mock jointery, or are foolish enough to insist that there is some kind of RAF plot to hurt the RN (and this nonsense is perpetuated to this day by very silly people), surely the sea trials show that the absolute reverse is true. QEC embarking Chinook helicopters could not have happened without an amazing amount of time, support, money and goodwill from the RAF.

There are those out there who genuinely think the RAF is a threat to QEC, whereas the reality is that the RAF has invested heavily in QEC being a success, and rightly deserves enormous credit for the way it has helped the UK regenerate into fleet carrier operations. The future of maritime aviation is purple, not 50 shades of blue.

This is the next point – jointery is the future. QEC is going to be a very purple defence asset – not an expensive bath toy for Admirals, but an exceptionally capable platform able to embark, support and operate aircraft and people in the land, sea and air domain. It is essential to quickly instil in the taxpayer the understanding that what they have purchased are essentially a joint force enabler that happens to float. It is vital that the Services and their supporters come together to coherently argue the important of the Carrier to all of their domains, and not see it as a threat to others budgets.

Solid as the Rock

The final, perhaps less obvious point is that these trials demonstrate the value of the UK’s global reach and presence. QEC is about to enter Gibraltar for the first time, which has required a tanking visit by an RFA tanker.  

This simple paragraph talks about something very, very few countries can do. Deploy a brand new fleet carrier to sea, deep into the Atlantic, while back in the UK a fleet of 4 brand new tankers that are as long as, and nearly twice as heavy as an INVINCIBLE class carrier prepare to operate with you, while sending a second large fleet tanker to an overseas naval base nearly  2000 miles from home to top up the support facilities, while also having access to a Forward Mounting Base in the form of stores and an airhead to support the visit if required. Meanwhile, there are several other tankers and stores ships available to continue to support the Fleet if needed.

This level of capability and sustainability is genuinely world beating. The only other nation able to do this is the USA. The French navy has just 3 auxiliary oilers/stores ships to support their fleet (even though CHARLES DE GAULLE is nuclear powered, she still requires other supplies and stores), so an equivalent move would probably deplete the entire French navy of tanking/stores support.

So, as usual amidst all the doom, gloom and naysaying, it is helpful to pause for a moment and consider how many positives can be taken from the very simple act of sending an aircraft carrier to sea on trials. This experience has once again served to highlight just how capable the Royal Navy really is, how exceptional the work has been to get to this point, and how bright the future is for the UKs ability to deploy aviation from the sea.