http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #354 SEPTEMBER 2017 // 39
ALKING UP to the top of HMS Queen
Elizabeth’s ski-jump and looking
back at her vast flight deck is the
best way to appreciate that the UK’s new
super-carrier is purpose designed and built
to launch and recover aircraft in the most
efficient and effective way. The carrier’s
919ft (280m) flight deck stretches into the
distance. In the carrier’s aft island, the
flying control (Flyco) is up and running to
oversee air operations on the ship with her
team of aircraft controllers at work and
visible through the island’s large windows.
During AFM’s visit to the ship a few days
before she was to leave Rosyth to start her
contractor sea trials (see AFM August, p8),
Queen Elizabeth was a hive of activity as the
dockyard workers were in the final stages
of removing their tools, scaffolding and
temporary power supplies. Amid the coming
and going of hundreds of men and women
in hi-visibility vests, the ship’s company
was carrying out a last damage control
rehearsal exercise to enable the carrier to
receive her certificate of sea worthiness.
Just behind Rosyth dockyard’s huge
Goliath crane, Queen Elizabeth’s sister ship,
HMS Prince of Wales, can be seen in an
advanced stage of assembly. Almost 20
years of effort to design, build and deliver
a new generation of aircraft carriers for
the Royal Navy is nearing its fruition.The carrier gap
Not surprisingly, the officers and sailors
onboard HMS Queen Elizabeth were itching
to put their ship through her paces. Setting
sail for sea trials on June 26 was a major
milestone in the project to close the Royal
Navy’s ‘aircraft carrier gap’, which resulted
from the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security
Review. As part of a bid to cut the Ministry of
Defence’s (MOD’s) budget, Britain’s last strike
carrier, HMS Ark Royal and her complement of
Harrier GR9s were sacrificed, leaving the UK
lacking fixed-wing naval aviation for the first
time since World War One. The money saved
was to be ploughed back into making sure the
delayed and over-budget HMS Queen Elizabeth
and Prince of Wales could actually be built.
The cost of re-establishing what is termed the
UK’s Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP)
capability is truly eye watering. At the time of
initial contract signature in 2007 the estimated
cost of the two carriers was just over £3bn. It
now stands at some £6.2bn to build the two
carriers, £5.8bn to buy 48 Lockheed Martin
F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and
£300m to procure Crowsnest airborne early
warning radars for installation in the Fleet Air
Arm’s Merlin HMA2 helicopters. According to
the UK National Audit Office (NAO) spending
watchdog, a further £600m has been set aside
to operate the two carriers over the next five
years; paying for fuel, food, maintenance andA fine aerial
view of HMS ‘Queen
Elizabeth’ shortly after
sailing from Rosyth in June.
All images Crown Copyright unless
otherwise statedW