Airforces

http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #359 FEBRUARY 2018 // 37

Airforces

Intelligence

‘In association with ....’

he last 12 months have
seen the UK’s armed forces
going through another
period of consolidation. With Iraq
and Afghanistan deployments
no longer the focus of military
commanders, planning is shifting
towards contingency operations.
The armed forces define these
as politically sensitive military
activities normally characterised
by short-term, rapid projection
or employment of forces in
conditions short of war.
It is no

surprise that the re-establishment

of maritime power is at the heart

of this strategy, with two brand-

new 65,000-ton Queen Elizabeth-

class aircraft carriers serving as

its backbone. The warships

are arriving at a time when

Russia is reinforcing its status

as a military power and

tensions are increasing

in Asia Pacific. Both

aircraft carriers

received widespread

media attention in

December 2017.

HMS Queen

Elizabeth was

commissioned into service at

Portsmouth Naval

Base on December 7,

followed by the floating

of the second-in-class,

HMS Prince of Wales at

Rosyth on Scotland’s east

coast on December 21.

On Christmas Eve, HMS

Tyne shadowed a Russian

Navy intelligence ship passing

through the North Sea and

English Channel, while an 815

Naval Air Squadron (NAS) Wildcat

helicopter departed Royal Naval

Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset,

to monitor two further Russian

vessels. A day later, HMS St Albans

watched over the Russian Navy’s

latest frigate Admiral Gorshkov as

it underwent sea trials off the north

coast of Scotland on Christmas

Day. These operations coincided

with Ministry of Defence (MOD)

moves to fight proposed budget

cuts with the new defence secretary

Gavin Williamson highlighting the

efforts of the military in a bid to

ring fence required budgets.

Common sense

prevails?

It has been seven years since

the 2010 Strategic Defence

and Security Review (SDSR)

saw the carrier HMS Ark Royal

T

Left: US Marine Corps pilot Lieutenant Colonel Brian Bann walks down the fl ight line after landing a UK F-35B at

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. The UK has taken delivery of its 14th F-35B Lightning II which fl ew into Beaufort,

South Carolina in December 2017 to take its place as part of the Lightning Fleet, set to operate from the Queen

Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and RAF Marham. Cpl Benjamin McDonald/US Marine Corps Top left: Integration of UK

weapons on the F-35B continues. Here, a US Marine Corps pilot assigned to the US Air Force’s 461st Flight Test

Squadron releases a Paveway IV precision-guided munition from an F-35B over Edwards AFB’s Precision Impact

Range Area on March 1, 2017. Darin Russell/Lockheed Martin Top right: HMS ‘St Albans’ (foreground), with the Russian

frigate ‘Admiral Gorshkov’ in the background, as seen through the Wescam sensor of an RNAS Culdrose Merlin HM2.

The Royal Navy frigate escorted the Russian warship through the North Sea and areas of UK interest on Christmas

Day. Crown Copyright