Airforces

38 // FEBRUARY 2018 #359 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com

Intel

Report

retired in December of that
year. The UK also lost its Harrier
Force, effectively torpedoing
the UK’s expeditionary strike
capability. The axe also fell
on the Royal Air Force’s new
Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol
aircraft. These were dark
days for maritime air power.
The 2015 SDSR went some
way to addressing those dubious
decisions and at the same time
reaffirmed the UK’s commitment
to 138 short take-off and vertical
landing (STOVL) F-35Bs. The
review also secured the future of
the two new Queen Elizabeth-
class carriers and confirmed the
purchase of the P-8A Poseidon
maritime patrol aircraft. Today,
much of the modernisation
within the UK armed forces
stems from the need to fix
its maritime capabilities.

HMS Queen Elizabeth
During initial sea trials off the
Scottish coast in July last year, an
RNAS Culdrose-based Merlin HM2
from 820 NAS landed on deck for
the first time. Having successfully
completed a second stage of sea
trials off the south coast of England
in late 2017, the carrier will now
undergo final build activity and
commence helicopter trials. The
Merlin will play an increasingly
important role on the vessel,
providing logistical support, anti-
submarine warfare and airborne
early warning capabilities.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the

F-35B will begin sea tests aboard

Queen Elizabeth off the northeast

coast of the US. Last August,

Squadron Leader Andy Edgell, the

UK’s F-35 lead test pilot based

at Patuxent River, Maryland told

the media: “Two aircraft will be

used in two four-week periods

on the carrier. The first will

concentrate on ski-jump take-offs

and vertical landings, followed

by a break, before entering a

next phase of shipborne rolling

vertical landing [SRVL] testing

and the more challenging tests

of inert stores, asymmetric loads

and high-motion STOVL ops.”

Last June, the Royal Navy’s Rear

Admiral Keith Blount explained

to journalists how the carriers

will be tasked to deliver a broad

range of capabilities, known as

Carrier Enabled Power Projection

(CEPP). “They are premier-league

capabilities that are globally

deployed and interconnected;

there will always be one [carrier]

at high readiness all the time.”

Admiral Blount described

how each vessel will be able to

accommodate up to 36 F-35s

in the ‘all-up’ carrier strike

configuration, or be used solely for

littoral warfare, or a mixture of both.

He added: “The ship is a perfect

platform, with the ability to be

used for humanitarian and disaster

needs, as a command ship, as well

as for defence and diplomacy.”

Lightning bound

for Marham

In the wake of the Harrier’s

retirement in 2010, the Royal Navy

began a long-lead programme to

preserve specialist skills. Fleet Air

Arm pilots are now being filtered

into the F-35B after flying US

warplanes, alongside pilots from the

RAF. The Lightning II programme

is evolving as a truly joint force and

headquartered at RAF Marham

in Norfolk, which is currently

undergoing a major modernisation

programme in readiness for the

F-35Bs. The first four F-35Bs for

No 617 Squadron ‘Dambusters’ are

expected to arrive from Beaufort

in summer 2018. UK personnel

have been working up on the jet

at the South Carolina base for the

past four years. Eleven F-35Bs

had been delivered to the facility

by the end of December 2017.

Evidence of further transition to

an operational squadron includes

the first four UK ab-initio pilots

joining the ‘Dambusters’ direct

from fast-jet training at RAF Valley,

Wales. They all recently completed

their ground course and will

soon make their first solo flights,

following in the footsteps of the

unit’s Officer Commanding (OC),

Wing Commander John Butcher,

who took to the air in an F-35B

on December 1, 2017 (see F-35B

flight for 617 boss, January, p8).

To achieve its reincarnation as

the UK’s first operational F-35B

squadron, the ‘Dambusters’

will involve a combined team of

RAF and Royal Navy personnel

flying and maintaining the jets,

from both land and sea.

Looking at the immediate future

Above: One of the newly converted Merlin HC4 airframes, ZJ127, arrives at

RNAS Yeovilton to be refuelled before embarking for deck trials in July 2017.

This particular airframe made the type’s public debut in the static display at

the RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 2017. Peter Reoch

Above: The UK’s future fl agship HMS ‘Queen Elizabeth’ sails into her home

port of Portsmouth for the fi rst time on August 16, 2017. The 65,000-tonne

carrier is due to begin helicopter trials in the coming months. Crown Copyright