Carry on Crossdecking! The Royal Navy, the US Marines and the F35

There are times when it feels as if to some commentators, the MOD and Royal Navy can’t do anything right. One such example of this is the story discussed over the last few days on twitter about the US Marine Corps embarking a squadron of F35 on-board HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH for her first major deployment in 2021.

This story, which for reasons that will become clear is an astonishing accomplishment, was seized on as evidence that the US was having to bail the UK out because the UK hasn’t bought enough F35s yet… There are times when it feels as if no matter how good news the story, someone will find a way to complain about it.

Why is this a big deal?

In a world where NATO interoperability and coalition operations are taken for granted, and land-based aircraft can easily stage out of different airbases, people may ask why it is so different to embark foreign aircraft on an aircraft carrier?

In the over 100 years of naval aviation, conducting truly joint operations where a squadron embarks and operates from another vessel has only happened a handful of times. The only operational example that Humphrey is aware of is that of HMS VICTORIOUS deploying to the Asia Pacific region in 1943 and embarking US aircraft for joint operations (the story is covered in significant detail at this link).

There have been numerous occasions of cross decking where a friendly aircraft may land and launch from a foreign carrier. But this is usually isolated in nature for training purposes. The host ship would not embark the aircraft for any length of time, and other than very basic maintenance and fuelling, would not be able to conduct long term support for it either.

Some nations have occasionally embarked a small number of aircraft for training purposes – usually to maintain carrier currency when their own carriers are in refit. For instance, the French Navy has occasionally temporarily embarked Rafale fighters on US carriers to keep their crews qualified whilst the ‘De Gaulle’ is in refit. Similarly, when the South American navies operated fixed wing carriers, they would occasionally practise landing and taking off from a US carrier.

These short deployments are usually conducted in a manner where the aircraft are essentially using the ship just to train. There is no operational integration, or deployment of the ship and airwing into a potential crisis – this is purely about the provision of the most basic level of capability.

The reason that the UK and USMC embarkation is such a big deal is because it is about creating a truly joined up force, where the USMC F35 are an integral part of the ships airwing and ability to conduct operations.  This sounds a fairly straightforward statement, but underpinning it is a lot of issues that require serious co-operation to resolve.

On one level the fact that HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH can embark a US squadron of F35 speaks to how well designed the ship is. Putting in sufficient space for embarking the right spares, fuel and so on is invaluable. Ensuring that the ship is able to cope with the installation of appropriate mission planning software, IT networks and the associated technical support needed to operate F35 is another leap entirely.

What the UK is essentially doing is creating a platform where the US feel sufficiently comfortable and trusting that they are prepared to operate on a foreign vessel and conduct their normal routine business for an extended period of time.

More widely, the fact that these aircraft will be embarked during a major operational deployment is also a significant leap forward in terms of integrated planning. With the aircraft at the centre of the carriers operational capability, the force commander will be certain to want to use them to best effect. This means being able to integrate US and UK aircraft into a coherent flying and training programme, and fusing them into a single capability available as required.

To be able to do this at sea on a multi-month cruise where US aircraft are able to seamlessly form part of a Royal Navy carrier airwing and operate as one unit requires an absolutely astonishing level of integration. This isn’t something you can just rock up and improvise at short notice. It requires a lot of planning, co-ordination and trust to ensure that both nations feel able to operate together in this way.

Not only is it in the practical sense of pulling a flying programme together, but in the deeper sense that were the carrier required to conduct operational missions, both nations feel comfortable launching and supporting operations from a UK deck.

Consider the scenario – HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, on her first major deployment is tasked to support a NEO of UK and US citizens out of a failing state somewhere in the western Indian Ocean. The state in question has a rebellion underway, with the rebels using armour and anti-aircraft weapons to threaten the lives of civilians, and disrupt the evacuation.

As the closest carrier for either the US or UK, the QE is tasked to prepare to conduct the evacuation using her airwing of Merlin and Chinook helicopters, supported by the embarked Royal Marine force. The UK and US F35 force is tasked to provide close air support to, if necessary, disrupt any hostile forces that pose a threat to the evacuation.

When you break this scenario down, it actually makes clear just how significant the US presence is on the QE. It requires both nations to feel comfortable at a senior policy making level that there are no reasons why the USMC could not fly in support of the operation. This speaks to the close policy making relationship in both FCO and MOD to ensure that State and DOD are content.

At an operational level, it shows the level of training and co-ordination required to bring the two nations F35 forces to conduct a joint operation as part of a single airwing, and not isolated detachments in a wider coalition. There is an enormous amount of work required to ensure both nations aircraft can work effectively together.

There needs to be agreement on the ROE profile for both national units – in the event of an aircraft coming under fire, what are the circumstances where it can fire back? Ensuring both countries are comfortable with each others ROE, and are able to work effectively together, particularly on areas where interpretations may slightly differ, is something that may not be glamorous, but could have enormous consequences if incorrectly handled.

As the mission planning continues there needs to be excellent co-ordination between the UK and US planning teams to ensure that the airwing is able to effectively operate together. This places a requirement for effective IT systems and software that can work together without challenging nationality caveats for classified documents coming into play and restricting who can see certain material. This again needs a strong level of trust and co-ordination to make it work effectively.

Finally when the aircraft are prepared for their mission, they need to be able to draw on the munitions and fuel supplies of the ship. This means ensuring that both countries aircraft are able to utilise these munitions properly, and that they can understand how to fit into the wider operational plan if they are called onto employ them.

By the time the first aircraft takes off on the mission, there needs to have been a superb amount of planning and co-ordination and support between two countries to make the mission happen. This isn’t easy, it takes a lot of practise, trust and mutual understanding to deliver, and very, very few countries are capable of working this closely together.

It is a big deal that the USMC are embarking on the QE, and they will certainly prove to be a significant and valued asset to the wider carrier airwing. It is extremely likely that over the next few years the presence of USMC jets on a UK carrier will be regarded as utterly routine, but we should never take for granted the work required to make it look and feel so routine.

RFA Support will be vital for enabling UK carrier strike

- Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Has the UK Failed?

As noted, there is a perception among some that the UK has somehow failed by having to have US aircraft deploy on the carrier. Is this a fair perception, or an easy opportunity to take a pop at the MOD for ‘failing’ in the same tired old vein as ‘carriers without planes’.

The UK plan for F35 delivery has always assumed that the force would build up over a lengthy period of time. This is for a couple of reasons – firstly it takes time to build up a large fighter jet fleet, each aircraft takes several years to build from start to finish, and there is only a finite amount of space in the production facilities. Even if the UK wanted to have 138 F35 delivered in a short timeframe, there is no way that the industrial capacity exists to deliver this.

More widely, growing fast jet forces takes time, and requires a lot of wider people and infrastructure in place to deliver it properly. RAF Marham has had hundreds of millions of pounds spent on it to act as the home for the first JSF unit. There is a finite limit to what can be introduced to service due to the wider challenge of getting enough trained people, support facilities and spare parts into service in the right timeframe.

The planned entry into service is seeing numbers slowly ramp up over time as more people are available and the force becomes larger. This will take several years to achieve but it is hard to see what else could be done. While some will doubtless see this as ‘UK carriers without UK aircraft’ we have to remember that the process of regenerating carrier strike is a long one, and it takes years to bring a capability up to full strength. The 2021 deployment will come very early in the operational life of both F35 and the QUEEN ELIZABETH, at a point when the force is still gaining experience.

There is a wider issue too of not wanting to bring everything into service at once – if you did, then the force will need replacing at the same time frame. Far better to spread the introduction out over a longer time, ensuring that as airframes become in need of deep maintenance and servicing, there is a new airframe arriving to cover the gap. People often forget that total force numbers and total force in service numbers are two very different issues – a spread out buy helps ensure that the latter number remains as high as possible.

There is also a practical issue in embarking the USMC that the CVF is a very large ship with a lot of hangar space that the UK is unlikely to fill in its entirety. The current plans for the airwing will see both vessels put to sea with about 24-30 aircraft at any one time, which will be a mixture of types drawn from across all three Services (a good reminder that the UK is far better at purple maritime aviation operations than people perhaps realise).

This will still leave space onboard for more aircraft, and it would seem logical to offer this up to trusted partners operating similar equipment. To that end, embarking the USMC is a sensible step bringing real gain to both sides. The UK will be able to benefit from additional fixed wing aircraft to draw on during deployments, while the USMC will have the certainty of a ‘proper’ deck to operate its F35 force from, rather than hoping for space on an LHD.

From a wider perspective, operating with the USMC embarked helps reinforce the philosophy of ‘international by design’ which will help the reshaping of the Royal Navy into, once again, being a strike carrier-based navy.It is extremely likely that when QE deploys, she will do so as part of an international task force, escorted by foreign vessels working alongside Royal Navy ones, and embarking UK and US jets. Much like the USN and French Navy deploy their carriers with international escorts (such as HMS DUNCAN working in the Med recently with both navies), the Royal Navy will almost certainly look to make deployments by the QE class as international in design as possible. Such a move will bolster relations with NATO partners, and help act as a good opportunity to train and work with allies abroad.  

Just because the early operations may have slightly fewer UK jets embarked than later on in the carriers life does not mean that something has gone wrong. Rather the UK is well on track to becoming a strike carrier operator again, able to lead international task forces to operate across the planet.  This move will be warmly welcomed by the US, who will see the ability to deploy onboard a QE as a useful means of ensuring an international carrier presence in the Middle East on a more enduring basis, reducing the burden on their own hard worked carrier force.

So when looking at this news, it is worth pausing for a moment to think about how significant it really is. Being able to deploy another countries aircraft on your own carrier as part of a single integrated airwing is something really rather special, and something no other nation on earth other than the UK and US can do.