I saw her today at Pier 11, NOS. No one could mistake that unique profile!
Here is a local newspaper story:
In a region known for aircraft carriers, the HMS Queen Elizabeth manages to cut a distinctive profile.
The first-in-class British ship has two islands rising from its flight deck, not one. The deck ends in an upward slope. And, unlike American carriers, it has no catapults or arresting cables.
But being the first ship of a new class, it shares both the challenges and promises that new technology brings to naval air power.
The ship and crew are spending a few days at Naval Station Norfolk before heading north to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., where it will begin to write a new chapter in Royal Navy history.
The 65,000-ton ship will host two F-35B stealth fighter jets and conduct several hundred take-offs and landings during 11 weeks at sea.
It will mark the first time in eight years that a British aircraft carrier has flown a fast jet from its decks.
"This is one of the key milestones we have been looking forward to," said Commodore Andrew Betton, commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group.
Betton and other British officers invited reporters and photographers aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth on Friday for a closer look at the ship and to discuss the forthcoming jet trials.
It's part of a huge step forward for the Royal Navy, which is ramping up its ability to deploy a carrier strike group — a carrier with armed escorts and other ships — something it hasn't done in a few years.
"We are having to relearn some of those skills, which perhaps have been less at the forefront of Royal Navy thinking for the last decade or so," Betton said.
The differences between the British ship and its American cousins go beyond those distinctive twin islands — the fore island holds the bridge, the aft island has flight control — and the ski slope flight deck.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth is powered by diesel engines, not nuclear reactors. There is currently no need for catapults or arresting cables due to the abilities of the F-35B, which can execute short take-offs and land vertically, like the famed Harrier jump jets of an earlier generation.
Inside, its passageways are noticeably wider than those on U.S. carriers, although the stairway ladders are common to both.
The new British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth utilizes two towers on the flight deck. The forward one has the bridge and is used for navigation and the rear one for flight operations.
First-in-class
Differences aside, the British faced the same fundamental challenges as the U.S. Navy did in building the next-generation aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford.
Like the Ford, the HMS Queen Elizabeth is considered a transformational ship. It incorporates new technology and more automation, and was built with aircraft like the F-35 in mind.
It is the largest British warship ever, measuring 280 meters, or around 920 feet, somewhat shorter than a Ford-class ship. It was built with efficiency in mind, the organizational structure changed.
Capt. Jerry Kyd, the ship's commander, had to fashion a crew to sail a new ship with new technology. It wasn't easy.
"It's been our biggest challenge to date," he said. "It was a heck of a struggle for the first couple of months. A lot of the new equipment we hadn't seen before."
He and other Navy leaders had an interesting attack strategy. A few years ago, they sat down with a piece of paper and came up with about 100 names of people who they thought would be up to the job.
"We wanted to seed the ship with the best qualified people we could," he said.
Building the ship was another hurdle.
In the U.S., all nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are designed and built by Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.
The United Kingdom did not have a single shipyard capable of handing the entire job.
It took the work of six shipyards to construct the ship in its entirety. The carrier was assembled at Rosyth Dockyard in Scotland, where 3,000 people worked on it. But it involved another 8,000 workers around the country.
At one point, it was a struggle to find workers in the skilled trades, like pipe-fitters and welders, Kyd said. The British also talked to experts at the Newport News shipyard.
‘Speed bumps' expected
About 200 support staff, including pilots, engineers, maintainers and data analysts will join the ship during the 11-week period at sea after it leaves Pax River.
The goal of these developmental trials is to see how the F-35B operates and communicates in a range of conditions.
More extensive trials will follow. The HMS Queen Elizabeth expects to deploy in 2021.
"We're ready to go, but it won't all be seamless," Betton said. "There will be speed bumps."
Kyd said that's to be expected. The movement of aircraft carrier strike groups is a routine sight in Hampton Roads, but it's not something to be taken for granted.
"I think this is why so few countries do this on this scale," he said. "The synchronization and coordination of an aircraft carrier group in combat, I'd wager, is the toughest military formation you can do."
is finally getting into Team Yankee.
