In late August HMS Queen Elizabeth will leave Portsmouth for her Westlant 18 trip. The ship will be away for around four months and, although not an operational deployment, this will be her longest and most demanding period at sea so far. The centrepiece of the deployment will be the fixed-wing First of Class Trials (FOCT) with F-35Bs touching down on her deck for the first time. In this article we look at the preparation and plans for the flying trials.
From simulator to real world
Since 2007 a great deal of work has been done in the F-35 QEC integration facility at BAE Systems at Warton. This £multi-million investment includes an F-35 cockpit and a simulator replicating the Flying Control (Flyco) office in the after island of the QEC. Using these tools it been possible to test the behaviour of the aircraft and how it interacts with the aviation systems fitted to the ship, and make changes to design where required.
The Landing Signals Officer (LSO) provides advice to the pilot to assist with safe recovery to the ship. In the simulators, the pilots and LSOs have been able to build up experience and develop the operating procedures for managing F-35B launch and recovery from the ship.
Advances in computing power and the sophistication and accuracy of modelling and simulations have helped to mitigate much of the risk involved with integrating a new aircraft with a new ship. The QEC were designed to operate the F-35 from the outset, her spacious decks and the experiences of the USMC, already operating the F-35B at sea, give every reason for confidence the flight trials will be successful.
Preparing for carrier aviation without carriers
Despite the loss of the RN’s aircraft carriers in 2010, unique carrier aviation and combat flying skills have been successfully kept alive by a careful strategy developed by the Fleet Air Arm. Adding to the legacy experience flying the Sea Harrier and Harrier GR7/9, selected RN pilots have served in the US Marine Corps flying the AV-8B Harrier and in the US Navy flying F/A-18 Super Hornet. This means today there are about 60 qualified RN fast jet pilots, with about 20 other pilots at various stages in the training pipeline. The RN currently has 8 fully trained F-35 pilots and the RAF will have 18 by the end of this year. Although based at RAF Marham and 617 being an RAF-badged squadron, the UK Lightning Force is a truly joint effort. An RN pilot slated to become CO of 617 shortly which will have a total strength of 14 pilots. Of these, 2 RN and 2 RAF pilots are ab initio, the F-35 is the first frontline aircraft they have trained on.
During QE’s last brief period at sea, Hawks of 736 Naval Air Squadron, played the part of F-35s so that the flight controllers onboard could rehearse procedures for managing aircraft approaching the ship. Aircraft handlers have been practising their role using full-size dummy F-35 models aircraft at RNAS Culdrose. These and every other possible preparation has been conducted on both the naval and aviation sides ahead of the real thing, using a variety of simulations and synthetic training aids.
Land-based development testing
The first fixed-wing aircraft to land on HMS Queen Elizabeth will be from the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Integrated Test Force (ITF) based at the US Navy’s Paxutent River flight test centre in Maryland. Development of the Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STVOL) aspects of the F-35B has utilised the specialised Centerfield STOVL facility at Pax River which includes a Ski Jump, a grated Hover Pit and an AM-2 Expeditionary Airfield (used by the USMC to create austere landing strips). Three British pilots are assigned to the ITF and have been preparing for the QEC FOCT for the last four years. A programme of successful ski-ramp launches has been conducted, including in substantial crosswinds and carrying full asymmetric loads. Results from the land-based test programme have reduced the risks and will speed up the ship-board testing process.
Work undertaken by the ITF is about defining the F-35’s handling qualities and the safe operating envelope. This is quite separate from the three aircraft of the RAF’s 17(R) Squadron Operational Evaluation Unit (OEU) based at Edwards AFB. They are part of the international F-35 Joint Operational Test Team (JOTT) focussed on weapons, combat tactics and operational considerations.
Big decks, fast jets (at last)
The first jets to land on the ship will be conducting Development Testing in two 3-4 week phases (DT-1 and DT-2), with a break from the intense flying schedule in the middle. Four pilots will be assigned to fly two “orange-wired” F-35B ITF aircraft for the FOCT programme. These test aircraft are technically US-owned jets but the pilots will be British. During the trials, both aircraft will send data for analysis to QE which will be temporarily fitted with a telemetry system. Initial flying will be conducted in very benign conditions but as the trials progress, the ship can seek more challenging weather as she cruises up or down the Eastern seaboard of the US. Simulator models can only be trusted to a point so the programme must proceed with caution, starting at the safest centre of the flight envelope and moving outward. There are multiple test points to be worked through with variables such as wind conditions, sea state and aircraft loading.
DT-1 will involve the pilots getting acquainted with the ship and carrier qualified. Initially daytime, dry deck vertical landings and ski-jump take-offs will be tested, then moving on to night flying and wet deck conditions. For vertical landings, the pilots are assisted by advice from the LSO and visual cues from the Glideslope and long-range line-up indicator system (GILS). Two Advanced Stabilised Glide Slope Indicators (ASGSI) project a vertically colour-coded beam which can be seen between 2 – 5nm away by the pilot, depending on conditions. There are also mountings for the Hihat system on the port quarter of the forward island designed to help the pilot gauge height over the deck when in the hover. However perhaps due to the inherent automation of the F-35, it appears that the Hihat lighting system will not now be fitted to the QEC.
Vertical landing at sea is now routine for USMC F-35Bs operating from their LHD/LHA assault ships. The automation of the F-35B’s flight controls make vertical landing a relatively simple affair compared to the very demanding workload placed on a Harrier pilot. As the QEC have a much larger flight deck and suffer less wind turbulence (because the island is further away from the landing spot), very little presumed risk is attached to this phase of flight testing.
Assuming the first phase goes well, DT-2 will involve more challenging sea states and the aircraft carrying dummy stores in various configurations. The Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landing (SRVL) technique will also be tried for the first time. This allows the aircraft to return to the ship at heavier weights carrying unused munitions or fuel. SRVL also reduces wear on the lift fan and heat impacts on the flight deck compared with vertical landing. SRVL requires flying a very precise approach profile with the aircraft touching down with around 60 Knots of forward speed so the wings are still generating part of the lift. Land too fast and the aircraft will run out of flight deck and have to take off again using precious fuel. Approach too slowly and the aircraft will descend too quickly, potentially hitting the stern of the ship or crashing on deck. This battle with the laws of physics has been managed successfully many times in the simulator but there are still some unknowns about performing this procedure on a moving deck at sea, which has important operational implications for carrier strike capability.
This year’s FOCT programme will define the safe operating clearances for the F-35 but a third development testing period (DT-3) is planned for mid-2019, as HMS Queen Elizabeth moves closer towards her first operational deployment in 2021. We will examine the other non-aviation aspects of the Westlant 18 deployment in another article to follow next month.
If she is leaving in late August, what are the chances that she will show up at the Bournemouth show? It would be fantastic PR.
Interesting, thank you.
I think the UK is buying F-35 without optional extras. We should cut our order in numbers and purchase the equipment to enhance performance.
Apparently Britain has failed to purchase a key system that would allow the fighter to communicate with other aircraft while also being able to strike.
“A lot of the value of the F-35 is its potential capability to share situational awareness with older platforms,” Justin Bronk, a defense analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told The Times.
But the British planes will have to switch to an unsecured wavelength called Link 16, which Bronk said was “quite easy for adversaries to detect.”
Also embarrassingly, the carriers broadband connection is just eight megabits, four times less powerful than the average British household. This could damage the planes’ ability to share information with the carrier.
True, but this stuff can be very easily bolted on as a UOR.
You’re just pissed because your paymasters in Russia can’t even build a new carrier, face it 😉
Not even true to start with. The F-35’s will be able to stealthily exchange tactical information with each other using MADL.
I know, we only have the old Admiral Kuznetsov. And even that embarrassingly breaks down every 500km or so. Kinda like your destroyers in warm water. It’s almost like we’re a paper tiger some people in the UK want to hold up as an existential threat….
And the value of the Rouble has depreciated by 50% over the past 2 years ever since the sanctions started biting. I guess I kind of feel like a Brexiter who saw the £ drop 20% overnight after the referendum.
What’s a Putinbot to do? I hear the MOD is hiring….I hear they call it PR in the West. Hi, I’m Boris from Vladivostok…Rofl
Phwoarr! Nerve twitched eh 😉
Thought I’d play along.
Is this the real Iqbal Ahmed?! That was quite witty.
All the F-35 squadrons will be under RAF control so no, it’s not a “truly joint effort”.
The Harriers, before they were phased out, operated under the same arrangement. During the last years of the Invincibles, it was rare to see a Harrier on their decks as the RAF refused to release them for sea going duties.
This is after the RAF unilaterally scrapped the Sea Harriers, the last sea going fighter.
Scrapping the Sea Harriers was fiercely resisted by the Navy. But the Navy was ignored. Both Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of the defence staff, and the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Nigel Essenhigh, resigned in protest.
And the first pilot to land an F-35 on Queen Elizabeth will be RAF. A low class insult to the Navy..
There will never be enough F35B to serve on the carriers the RAF has already laid claim to the first batch of 38 and already selected there operational postings.
The whole carriers project was a treasury a stich up and a brown job protection scheme.
The navy wanted cats and traps and the f18 the raf wanted f35a and the treasury said we can save money by having the F35B and the RAF and Navy can share forgetting that had different requirements.
So we get the largest and most exspensive helicopter carriers ever built which .might have 12 F35B if the RAF release them but a carrier without awacs/in-flight refuelling to support them giving them a puny range of 300km with a 1500kg payload meaning they have no power projection.
Plus they actually don’t work according to USMC who have been thoroughly disappointed by the red.
Thanks Gordon Brown
That is a very negative appraisal. I doubt it is all true.
The discussion for the carriers design and the hand of Gordon Brown’s Treasury are available to the public.
The navy wanted cats and traps and RAF wanted the F35A .
The Treasury overruled both services leading to the present mess.
For the F35B to meet operational acceptance the USMC changed the requirements 4 times and it only just passed.
A 2017 report to the Quarter Master General at the Pentagon said the f35b was unfit for operational service and was a danger to pilots and should not been accepted..
It is all there in black and white Rick .
The Treasury has form in saving money in defence projects.
Type 45 12 for 6 billion treasury orders savings reduced to ten then 8 then someone realises the dockyards will have no work so the last 2 have build times extended navy gets 6 for 6 billion.
Type 26 the original requirements was 13 at 1.5 a year costing 8 billion now 8 at 1 every 2 years costing 8 billion.
This is down to treasury short sighted spending.
How can the decision makers be that stupid, this is unbelievable.
Its unbelievble because the carrier piece is presented so far out of context as to be unrecognisable. The RN didnt ‘want’ F-35C when the price of CATOBAR was going to be dropping 2 decks to just the one and alternating deployments with the Marine Nationale and the Charles de Gaulle group.
The first step in the CVF project was the FCBA (Future Carrier Borne Aircraft) type downselect. If memory serves that was back in 2002ish and was first for F-35 and then, explicitly, for STOVL. STOVL was chosen because we could not afford a Fleet Air Arm at Aeronavale levels of manning without a huge increase in the equipment and operations budgets – if we wanted to preserve all the other programs we had running at the same time.
Have a look at what maintaining the Aeronavale/CATOBAR has cost the Marine Nationale!. Their 2nd gen SSN isnt in service yet, they’ve been forced to drag on the F70’s and somewhat modest LaFayettes past their sell by dates and their UNREP capacity is modest at best. They unbalanced their fleet to get a part time CVN CATOBAR deck.
Not a model for the RN to follow at a time it was also having to find cash for the replacement of T23 and SSBN and continue the build of Astute and T45.
So STOVL was selected:
(a) in order to continue to allow the RAF to foot the bill for basing the fast jet squadrons that Culdrose and Yeovilton would have to be stood up to be ready.
(b) to obviate the need for a full CATOBAR deck qualification training cycle to be developed
(c) to enable the ‘Golf Bag’ Tailored Air Group concept.
This was forgotten about by the time the 2010 Defence paper came around, but, when the costs for CATOBAR were sketched out the original STOVL downselect reasons were quickly remembered. Far from, then, CATOBAR being desired STOVL was actually chosen twice!.
Where does the combat radius of 300km you are claiming come from?. The official number is 450nm. That is more than an F-18C and illustrated out would be a launch from Heathrow, full LO transit to Hamburg, 8 precison SPEAR3 shots, and a return to base….with a couple of BVR air-air shots if needed. That is far superior to anything we’ve had in 40yrs.
The F35A is a purely land based aircraft. The F35C is the version with a tailhook. Given the multiple missions the RN is using their new carriers for I don’t see that they could realistically gone with arrested landing aircraft. There is simply not enough deck and hanger space
Could it be feasible to consider a kind of time-sharing scheme for the 2 carriers with the French Rafale M ?
The RN will operate the platform and La Royale provide the aircrafts.
It could make sense when the CdG is not in service or if we would have to deploy more aircrafts to face a serious threat jointly.
Indian navy might soon buy Rafale M to equip its Stobar carrier.
The idea is not for the UK to buy French aircrafts but to take advantage of both existing sound assets (our 2 big carriers and our valuable aircrafts – Providing that Rafale 4 can share data with F35)
SRN has always had reservations about joint RN/RAF ownership of the F-35. If we are prepared to overlook the unfortunate history of the arrangement, then so far things are working well and there is a very good joint team spirit amongst the Lightning Force focused on getting the jets to sea. The real test will be in the longer run as the RAF sees the F-35 as a Tornado replacement and there may be tensions over prioritising aircraft generation for land-based or carrier strike. There are already suggestions of a ‘split buy’ purchase of F-35A for RAF use (Potentially detrimental to naval aviation and worthy of discussion another time).
I’m glad to hear “things are working well”. I’ve watched 3 episodes of Britain’s Biggest Warship and I think the Navy is delighted with their new super carrier. Andy, calling the QE the “largest and most expensive Helicopter Carrier ever built” is a gross exaggeration and mis-representation of the facts. I would retract that.
Rick they will never have more than 12 F35B embarked as there is not cat in hells chance of the RAF releasing more. Plus there is a huge question mark over the treasury releasing the funds to buy the 138 F35B required it is looking like we will get 70 at most meaning allowing for training and maintainance there will be a available pool of 27 to share between the two services.
We have a 65000 ton carrier which can carry 48 jets but only enough jets for 12 .
So we have built the largest and most exspensive helicopter carriers in the world with a sideline as a pig in a poke aircraft carrier.
And that if they are fit to fly the USMC F35B have spent more time grounded than operational .
Gordon Brown has a lot to answer for and the boy George made it worse.
The US Marines currently have deployed Western Pacific two LPH operating the F35B with all aircraft preforming well. I hate to bust your bubble Negative Nancy but the F35B has been even better and more trouble free on deployment then American planners hoped. Thank God for the Skunk Works at Lockheed
Whilst i agree Joint Force Harrier was and going forwards ‘Joint Force Lightning’ will be RAF dominated i don’t think what you’ve said is entirely accurate or fair.
Part of the reason Sea Harrier was scrapped was because it didn’t operate well in hot climates (designed for the North Atlantic but increasingly deployed to the Middle East) and it would have been expensive to upgrade them with new, more powerful engines. Worth the cost? Maybe. However by 2002 it was too late to work around the financial and technological reality. The really short sighted decision was both the RAF and RN pursuing very different Harrier upgrade paths in the late 80s/early 90s.
During the last years of the Invincible’s the RAF Harriers were worked hard in Afghanistan. Between 2006-2010 there were annual deployments of a handful (usually 4 i think) on Illustrious or Ark Royal to keep residual carrier skills alive, but the need to keep 8+ air-frames operating on Operation Herrick 365 days a year, with a finite forward fleet and amount of pilots/money limited what else the fleet could do.
Always delightful to hear the RAF point of view.
The Sea Harriers, for all their faults and what aircraft doesn’t have them, was a credible fleet air defence fighter armed with a decent radar and AMRAAM and Sidewinder missiles. After they were scrapped, the Navy had zero air cover, zero. Basically back to 1941 when Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk because of no air defence.
Trying to square the circle vis a vis FAA and RAF requirements is and has been hard to achieve. It’s always been my contention that there should where possible be maximum cooperation especially with Defence getting such a miserable share of resources. One example from which there is much to learn are the many attempts to reinforce Malta with Hurricanes and Spitfires. This should be ‘the how not to do it’ exemplar for any staff class.
A situation that could easily be repeated in a future conflict.
In a worst case scenario, can the F35A take off from a ski jump? Probably doubtful in the extreme.
What baffles me is why they didn’t take the radars off the Sea Harriers and mount them on Harrier GR9s. Call it a “Harrier FGR11” and keep it in service until the F-35B is operation in enough numbers to replace them. Or even “Sea Harrier FGR11”, because the RAF didn’t want Harriers anymore so why not hand them over to the RN instead of scrapping them?
The USMC did exactly that with taking radars from retired F/A-18As and mounting them on the AV-8B, and the Sea Harriers’ Blue Vixen was a better radar than the AN/APG-65.
But nope, apparently having no capability at all until the next gen aircraft arrive was apparently a good idea.
If you want to purchase cheap Sea Harriers with the more powerful engines to flesh out your deck loads on your new CGs the USMC is still operating them whill the fully transition their squadrons to the F35B. They are also flying the F18 Hornet until the get their F35Cs
Isn’t the next Lightning squadron going to be an FAA unit (809 Squadron if I’m not mistaken)? While the force will be RAF dominated, with both the OCU and OEU squadrons being RAF, the RN will eventually have at least 2 of its own squadrons that it has overall authority over.
Also, purely a guess on my part, but unlike back when the Sea Harrier was scrapped, the navy seem to be in the ascendant politically currently. 2 new carriers that have already caused a lot of controversy, the MoD must be under pressure to prove their worth. The navy is also offering a lot of opportunities to exploit politically, exporting the T26 to Australia and Canada, revitalising domestic shipbuilding.
Th RN squadron will be under RAF control. It’s just PR.
Yes ! Bring her to Bournemouth for the big air show in August!
On the way to the scrap yard a £3 billion white elephant.
Grey surely.
“Thar be the white whale… bring me my Harrrpoon Ishmael!”
“Captain… we uh…. we don’t have any Harpoons anymore… they’ve passed their OSD…”
Very good .
The Admirals who run the navy have a awful lot to answer for.
Excellent positivity being displayed.
The range of the F35 could be extended by in flight refuelling. Why not by back 12 GR7 and convert them into tankers, 8 used for the carrier and 4 for training.
I also wondered if the F-35b could carry heavier loads if rockets are attached to it’s side of fuselage, to boast thrust at take-off and jettisoned once the plane is in the air? If so, it would enable F-35b to deploy Storm Shadow missile from QE class carrier.
The USS Nimitz was built in the early ’70s at the then outrageous cost of $1Billion. It has been an instrument of national policy for nearly 50 years. While the cost today for the Ford seems extreme , future American Presidents currently in grade school will use this ship to carry out American and Allied policy long after most of us are dead and gone
Only if they can get the Ford’s EMALS and AAG’s to work reliably. Let’s face it, General Atomics have been trying to get them to work for about 10 or 12 years now without success. They seem to be getting worse as the years go by.