HMS Queen Elizabeth, weighing in at 70,600 tonnes, will be capable of deploying up to 60 aircraft
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HMS Queen Elizabeth to conduct F-35 trials off US coast
It has been revealed that the first of the two new Queen Elizabeth carriers will conduct F-35 flight trials off the eastern coast of the US in 2018.
Ian Booth, managing director of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance said:
“Pretty much everything is now installed in the ship and working. We’ve had lots of prior factory testing before putting systems on board and so far, it’s all looking pretty good.
Over the next few months we will finish compartment handovers, and complete work to coat the flight deck. We will also conduct harbour events and acceptance trials for virtually all systems – propulsion, steering, navigation, or communications – here [at Rosyth] before we go.”
F-35 pilots have embarked on the USS America this week for at-sea developmental testing phase 3 (DT3), the last trial that paves the way for the US Marine Corps to deploy the jet operationaly on amphibious assault ships.
BAE Systems test pilot Pete Wilson said:
“This will not be a DT phase. Testing on the Queen Elizabeth will be like DTs 1, 2 and 3 combined.
We don’t need to use fully instrumented aircraft; we already understand most of the loads on the aircraft systems, as we have tested that during earlier tests.”
The term now used for the carriers embarked squadrons is ‘Carrier Air Wing’ (CVW). ‘Tailored Air Group’ (TAG) has been used in the past for tailored rotary air groups and we understand the term has fallen out of use.
The carriers, in peacetime, will usually deploy with 12-24 F-35B’s as a minimum and a number of various helicopters.
The vessels are capable of deploying a variety of aircraft in large numbers, up to a maximum in the upper fifties in surge conditions.
In addition to the joint force of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy F-35Bs and their pilots, the air wing is expected to be composed of a ‘Maritime Force Protection’ package of nine anti-submarine Merlin HM2 and four or five Merlin for airborne early warning; alternatively a ‘Littoral Manoeuvre’ package could include a mix of RAF Chinooks, Army Apaches, Merlin HC4 and Wildcat HM2.
The Crowsnest AEW&C aircraft will come from the embarked Mk2 Merlins.
We understand that the composition of the CVW is a balance between ship capacity and squadron availability. Squadrons assigned or ‘programmed’ to sail on deployment will mostly in the case of the aircraft carrier be unique to it, for example the airborne early warning helicopters that have no other purpose but to serve the carrier force.
In addition, we have also been told that we will shortly see decisions like this for the F-35B and maybe a utility helicopter (or tilt-rotor in future) type.
The flight trials are expected to take several months. HMS Queen Elizabeth is planned to sail in March 2017 for 11 weeks of builders sea trials in the North Sea.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/hms...rce=TW&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=social
It has been revealed that the first of the two new Queen Elizabeth carriers will conduct F-35 flight trials off the eastern coast of the US in 2018.
Ian Booth, managing director of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance said:
“Pretty much everything is now installed in the ship and working. We’ve had lots of prior factory testing before putting systems on board and so far, it’s all looking pretty good.
Over the next few months we will finish compartment handovers, and complete work to coat the flight deck. We will also conduct harbour events and acceptance trials for virtually all systems – propulsion, steering, navigation, or communications – here [at Rosyth] before we go.”
F-35 pilots have embarked on the USS America this week for at-sea developmental testing phase 3 (DT3), the last trial that paves the way for the US Marine Corps to deploy the jet operationaly on amphibious assault ships.
BAE Systems test pilot Pete Wilson said:
“This will not be a DT phase. Testing on the Queen Elizabeth will be like DTs 1, 2 and 3 combined.
We don’t need to use fully instrumented aircraft; we already understand most of the loads on the aircraft systems, as we have tested that during earlier tests.”
The term now used for the carriers embarked squadrons is ‘Carrier Air Wing’ (CVW). ‘Tailored Air Group’ (TAG) has been used in the past for tailored rotary air groups and we understand the term has fallen out of use.
The carriers, in peacetime, will usually deploy with 12-24 F-35B’s as a minimum and a number of various helicopters.
The vessels are capable of deploying a variety of aircraft in large numbers, up to a maximum in the upper fifties in surge conditions.
In addition to the joint force of Royal Air Force and Royal Navy F-35Bs and their pilots, the air wing is expected to be composed of a ‘Maritime Force Protection’ package of nine anti-submarine Merlin HM2 and four or five Merlin for airborne early warning; alternatively a ‘Littoral Manoeuvre’ package could include a mix of RAF Chinooks, Army Apaches, Merlin HC4 and Wildcat HM2.
The Crowsnest AEW&C aircraft will come from the embarked Mk2 Merlins.
We understand that the composition of the CVW is a balance between ship capacity and squadron availability. Squadrons assigned or ‘programmed’ to sail on deployment will mostly in the case of the aircraft carrier be unique to it, for example the airborne early warning helicopters that have no other purpose but to serve the carrier force.
In addition, we have also been told that we will shortly see decisions like this for the F-35B and maybe a utility helicopter (or tilt-rotor in future) type.
The flight trials are expected to take several months. HMS Queen Elizabeth is planned to sail in March 2017 for 11 weeks of builders sea trials in the North Sea.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/hms...rce=TW&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=social
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