'That Slinking Feeling' - Why There Is No Mystery In Portsmouth

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH (QE) has returned to port in the small hours of a Friday morning, docking in Portsmouth Naval Base after several weeks conducting F35 operations in the North Sea.

So far, so routine. Yet the decision to bring the ship into port at around 0300 has led to claims of coverups, and that the Royal Navy has something to hide. Apparently, according to an article on the Portsmouth News website, there must be something wrong with the ship.

The article suggests that there may be something wrong with the ship, and that she has only been away from home for a relatively short period of time, so her unexpected return is a cause for concern. It even quoted a ‘senior retired naval source’ (Rear Admiral Madeup RN?) citing safety issues.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Articles like this are really frustrating to read because they amount to little more than a fishing trip in the hope of getting some form of gossip or suggestion that the ship is somehow broken. The scheduled arrival of an aircraft carrier in harbour is hardly ‘slinking in’, and there is no reason to be suspicious of the time of the ships arrival.

One of the most complex parts of operating the QE class carriers is getting the weather window right to safely bring them in to harbour, to ensure that the tide, depth of water under the keel, and the wind conditions are such, that the ship can be safely operated.

This is the same of any ship, all of which have different parameters as to when is the best time for them to set sail. No CO wants their ship to put to sea in weather conditions which may lead to them running aground due to a lack of water under their keel.

For the QE class, as these are large warships, the window in which they can enter or leave harbour is more restricted than smaller warships. You’d expect this from a 65000 tonne behemoth which has an 11m draught. High tide is the right point to want to come alongside, when there is maximum flexibility in steaming into port, and being able to be manoeuvred into position.

In this case, the high tide for Friday 14^th was either in the very early hours of the morning, or at around 3pm in the afternoon. The advantage of the morning slot was that it brought the ship into harbour with minimum of disruption to other shipping, and ensured that she could be safely alongside and secured early in the day.

With the weather forecast for the weekend not looking optimal, particularly with strong winds and high seas forecast, the risk would have been that staying out for longer, if the weather window had closed, would have potentially made it difficult for the ship to come alongside for a couple of days, requiring her to stay at sea instead.

There is nothing wrong with the ship sitting off at sea, but when you’ve done several weeks away, it’s inevitably frustrating to be within sight of home, yet instead doing racetracks waiting for the tides to change and wind to drop before you can come into harbour.

By coming alongside in the small hours, its also been possible ensure the crew get away on time for their weekend leave and spend it with family and loved ones. It’s a nice start to the Valentines weekend, and while some cynics may scoff, the support of family is critical to sailors, so being able to spend time with them matters.

The difference between being away by lunchtime on a Friday, particularly if you have a long commute home, or waiting till Friday night is tangible, particularly after a busy period, so small things like this do make a significant impact on sailors morale.

What is most depressing about this incident though is the ridiculous suggestion that somehow the navy has something to hide or be ashamed about from it all. It does feel rather desperate to suggest that a routine ship movement to work with the tides is ‘skulking’. More to the point, if the RN wanted to hide something (as was implied) then moving the biggest warship built in British maritime history into her home port isn’t a good way to hide whatever time of day you choose to come alongside – people will notice!

The ship has an active twitter account which made clear a few days ago that she had completed her period of flying trials as planned.  The ship has been to sea to do the job that was planned and has now returned to harbour in time for her crew to go home for the weekend. That’s a less exciting way of looking at things, but its also the reality.

The QE class are going to see a great deal of media attention throughout their lives, and this is to be welcomed. People are proud of these ships and what they represent, and every movement in and out of Portsmouth will draw public interest.

But it is a shame that some people think that by not doing what you expect them to do, or by providing minute by minute commentary on the ships movement, there is somehow a conspiracy in place to hide something. What exactly would the RN be trying to hide here and why?

The sad thing is that this ridiculous obsession with the idea that there is somehow a mystery surrounding the vessels return masks the very good news story of her most recent sea time. She has successfully embarked and operated F35 jets in UK waters for the first time, going about her business of being a fixed wing aircraft carrier and doing so at home.

It is wonderful to reflect that after years of progress, the RN has now reached the point again where it can run these sorts of flying ops in UK waters as a routine evolution. This is all part of the continued regeneration of UK carrier strike capability, ahead of further deployments later this year.

The carrier force will be kept very busy this year, with both ships working hard to deliver as planned – this means there will probably be further shorter trips away from home, coupled with longer deployments out to the US again too.

Another piece of good news conveniently forgotten in this article is that the F35 force has been equally busy. Not content with just operating at sea with the RN, other F35s (along with Typhoon and supporting forces) have been deployed to Nevada to take part in EX RED FLAG with the US.

This is one of the worlds most challenging and complex military exercises, built around the successful delivery of airpower in a very difficult and ever changing environment. It is testament both to the superb range of capabilities in use by the RAF, coupled with the very close military relationship enjoyed with the US, that the UK has been able to get maximum training value from this exercise.

When brought together this neatly highlights the fact that the F35 force is rapidly becoming a central part of the UK’s military capabilities and will play an ever more vital role in operations going forward.

It’s a shame then that rather than focus on genuine good news, which shows how the UK continues to play a leading military role, instead ill informed articles have appeared based on little more than speculation, and what appears to be a slight huff that the newspaper wasn’t personally informed of the ships movements in advance.

The fact is there is no story here, yet were you to live in the Portsmouth area, you’ve essentially been led to believe there is a problem with the carrier. At the same time the reliance on an alleged ‘retired senior naval source’ who seems to speak in remarkably clunky soundbites, and who has been retired for so long he’s forgotten that the tides come in twice per day, is also a sad reflection too. If the best you can find to support your article is a source who unfortunately shares the habit of speaking in a way that sounds like a made up source would probably speak, then it makes for a fairly weak article.

The problem though is that this sort of rubbish gets believed by people who don’t closely follow the story of the QE class. Articles get remembered for the wrong reasons and its easy to think after reading this, particularly if you don’t read much about defence, that the carrier programme is broken and the RN has something to hide. This is a shame because nothing could be further from the truth. Sadly it seems the truth is in short supply in some media outlets these days.