The United Kingdom's first aircraft carrier in more than 30 years is just months from sea trials. HMS Queen Elizabeth, named after the reigning monarch, will get the Royal Navy back into the naval aviation game after a brief absence.
Queen Elizabeth is expected to be fully operational by 2020, with her sister ship Prince of Wales
following in 2023. The two ships will give the
The U.K. lost its carrier aircraft capability with the retirement of the Harrier jump jet fighters in 2010 and the scrapping of its HMS Invincible-class
carriers. While this was a blow to the country's ability to project
power from the sea, Britain hopes two much larger carriers and a
complement of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to go with them will be worth the wait.
HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy, displacing 70,600 tons and 920 feet long. The Queen Elizabeth
will have a crew of 679, and attached Fleet Air Arm personnel will
double that number. As a bonus, it can carry up to 250 Royal Marines for
helicopter assault operations.
The carriers were
originally set to use catapults to launch airplanes, but the price
ballooned and the Royal Navy opted to do without them. Instead, the Queen Elizabeth
class features an angled ski deck on the ship's bow to launch
airplanes. This will allow F-35B Joint Strike Fighters to do rolling
takeoffs with heavier weapon loads and achieve greater ranges.
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| One of the UK's first F-35B Joint Strike Fighters at Eglin Air Force Base, 2013. Ministry of Defence photo. |
Queen Elizabeth will carry approximately 12 F-35Bs during normal operation, plus a number of Merlin
helicopters for anti-submarine and utility duties. In a crisis the air
wing will surge to up to 40 planes, including 36 F-35Bs. The ships will
also have the ability to launch and recover Royal Army helicopters for
air strikes and air assaults, including the WAH-64 Apache, CH-47 Chinook, and Wildcat helicopters.
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