UK Defence Forum

for video ^
(Navy Lookout) 3rd May 2021

First of the RAF 617 Squadron jets that will join the carrier for the deployment flew from RAF Marham and landed on board the ship off the south west coast of England. (2 May 2021)

These will soon be joined by more UK jets making a total of 8 plus another 10 USMC aircraft, with a total of 18 onboard for the deployment.

Noticed the RAF F-35B's now have weapons rails fitted on the wings.

I do like the old school army air corps ? flag on the lift fan intake

^ enlarged:

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https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/america ... 2e7OPpvgyY

Should be a good photo op and allow us to see how they work well together.

Bet we’ll see some V-22 on QEs deck and you never know hopefully at least on Harrier to park side by side with one of of our own F35Bs

Nipper in light blue hard hat at about 18 secs in lowering his boat for Man overboard training.

Jake1992 wrote:Bet we’ll see some V-22 on QEs deck and you never know hopefully at least on Harrier to park side by side with one of of our own F35Bs

Don't think they'd risk a Harrier landing on QE without trials first I'm afraid...

Timmymagic wrote:

Jake1992 wrote:Bet we’ll see some V-22 on QEs deck and you never know hopefully at least on Harrier to park side by side with one of of our own F35Bs

Don't think they'd risk a Harrier landing on QE without trials first I'm afraid...

I tend to agree but can still hope lol

I just think it’d be a brilliant photo op with it nexts to a British F35B if we could, plus it’d help improve cross decking as the USMC will be using them for a good while to come still.

PhillyJ wrote:Nipper in light blue hard hat at about 18 secs in lowering his boat for Man overboard training.

Hope you've got his autograph, now he's a movie star

Jake1992 wrote:I just think it’d be a brilliant photo op with it nexts to a British F35B if we could, plus it’d help improve cross decking as the USMC will be using them for a good while to come still.

Think of the PR and Political angle of that photo...."There's a Harrier on HMS Queen Elizabeth...why did we sell them off, we'd have had aircraft on the carrier..." That sort of nonsense. It's a photo which would be nice for enthusiasts, but in PR terms its not a good look.

Or MoD has a cheeky dig at politicians by saying if you'd funded us properly :p

andrew98 wrote:Or MoD has a cheeky dig at politicians by saying if you'd funded us properly :p

The one thing MoD doesn't want is more focus on how it spends the money....

Why not, the current approach has clearly worked since the 1980's

dmereifield wrote:Hope you've got his autograph, now he's a movie star

don't give him ideas! To be fair, if you're caught on camera talking then his warfare dept have a rule that you need to replenish the mess fridge with beer! He tends to hide from most social media opportunities for this reason.

does the lighter blue helmet signify anything or is it just a fashion statement?

If the RN have been sitting on photos of the two carriers together at sea then they are now stuck with the problem that releasing them will be seen as baguette waving at this critical time for Anglo/French relations. My stick is bigger than yours and I have two!

Also, if true, didn't this happen before when they held back early trials photos of deck landings and in the meantime a US F35B crashed.

To paraphrase Admiral Fisher, moderation in PR relations is imbecility.

Bring Deeps wrote:If the RN have been sitting on photos of the two carriers together at sea then they are now stuck with the problem that releasing them will be seen as baguette waving at this critical time for Anglo/French relations. My stick is bigger than yours and I have two!

Also, if true, didn't this happen before when they held back early trials photos of deck landings and in the meantime a US F35B crashed.

To paraphrase Admiral Fisher, moderation in PR relations is imbecility.

Seem to remember that the last time there was a really big QE Photo set for PR (the first landings and takeoffs) they held the photos back, embargoed with the press for late Friday so they could get them in the weekend papers. It was only because someone went early by accident (was it Janes?) that they came out a little earlier. Wouldn't surprise me if they were looking to do the same thing.

Ron5 wrote:does the lighter blue helmet signify anything or is it just a fashion statement?

only that it's an older one that has faded he thinks.

Awsome now a Chinocks on board ! perhaps a QE - CVS - POW - LPH photo may pop up very unlikely but nice to dream

With CSG-21 and the LRG at sea in the waters around Scotland would be another great photo op

Thinking about things I think we should formally ask the USMC to permanently have a squadron onboard ,1) would help us out and they do have US forces permanently stationed here ,like fighter wing ,same in Japan Europe etc 2) we get our 24 f35 and would allow us too have big wing of 36 if needed or 24 on QE and 12 on POW o vice versa ,3) with loss of 1 of their USMC carriers at least a fighter wing got a permanent home 4) in new reality this kind of thinking is going to have to happen to counter China /Russia also the cost sharing .5) if US needs that extra carrier for a deployment that the loss of theirs was going to do they could use POW already have a fighter wing embedded .6) on normal deployments around the world they would be attacking 2 countries not one .. think it would really work for both sides of they had the will ,as said cos we skint would help the f35 numbers and USMC/USN got a large USMC carrier at hand ,win win in my book

inch wrote:Thinking about things I think we should formally ask the USMC to permanently have a squadron onboard ,1) would help us out and they do have US forces permanently stationed here ,like fighter wing ,same in Japan Europe etc 2) we get our 24 f35 and would allow us too have big wing of 36 if needed or 24 on QE and 12 on POW o vice versa ,3) with loss of 1 of their USMC carriers at least a fighter wing got a permanent home 4) in new reality this kind of thinking is going to have to happen to counter China /Russia also the cost sharing .5) if US needs that extra carrier for a deployment that the loss of theirs was going to do they could use POW already have a fighter wing embedded .6) on normal deployments around the world they would be attacking 2 countries not one .. think it would really work for both sides of they had the will ,as said cos we skint would help the f35 numbers and USMC/USN got a large USMC carrier at hand ,win win in my book

The problem I see with this is who gets to decide when and where this set up is deployed ?

What happens if the US want to use this air wing and in turn the QE they’re on on a deployment we don’t agree with, or if we want to use the air wing on a deployment they don’t agree with ?

In reality jake1992 not often our 2 countries don't have the same objective but in any case we have 2 carriers so one could go for a USMC mission independent of what the other is doing ,RN only going to be operating one carrier at a time and other on standby , and if they were clever USMC would rotate one USMC carrier with RN QE class as in a class of 3 in rotation for always available ,duty , standby,refit .it could work if they wanted it too

inch wrote:In reality jake1992 not often our 2 countries don't have the same objective but in any case we have 2 carriers so one could go for a USMC mission independent of what the other is doing ,RN only going to be operating one carrier at a time and other on standby , and if they were clever USMC would rotate one USMC carrier with RN QE class as in a class of 3 in rotation for always available ,duty , standby,refit .it could work if they wanted it too

Yes we don’t often differ on objectives but if we do who gets to decide, can we say well the planes are on our deck so tough or do the US get to say we want our planes here so get going and take them.

It’s not availability I’m concerned about in that plan it’s those odd times when both nations want differing things. How would the RN feel if they have to send one of there only to flat decks in to an operation they don’t want to because the US want their aircraft there this is what I’m getting at as a problem with this plan.

I think it could work for training & intergration & a show of NATO commitment, just like the soon CSG 21 deployment

Aslong Uk has the right to say no to a deployment or tell the USMC planes to get of at a moments notice just in case

For example would the US of been ok overtly in a falklands situation or would the uk if they used a QEC in a Grenada type situation