Douglas Barrie
The Royal Navy is stepping up plans to develop a hybrid aircraft-carrier air wing. If these goals are met, uninhabited systems are likely to be substantial in role and number within each air wing, which will sustain and expand the utility of the navy’s carriers into the future, explain Douglas Barrie and Nick Childs.
The head of the Royal Navy, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Tony Radakin, confirmed on 19 May that his service is stepping up plans to develop a hybrid aircraft-carrier air wing. Admiral Radakin, speaking at the 2021 First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference, hosted by the IISS, said the aim is to begin trials of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) aboard one of the navy’s two Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, HMS Prince of Wales, by September.
This could be the first step to the Royal Navy fielding hybrid air wings of crewed combat aircraft, UAVs and helicopters for both of its carriers. If these goals are met, uninhabited systems are likely to be substantial in role and number within each air wing. The impact would be not only on the future development of air platforms for the carriers, but potentially also on how the ships are equipped to launch and recover aircraft.
Making the most of the carriers
Currently HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are configured to operate the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) ‘B’ variant of the F-35 Lightning II as their fixed-wing combat aircraft, without the requirement for catapults or arrester gear (also known as ‘cats and traps’, respectively). Present procurement plans and funding constraints, however, mean the United Kingdom will struggle to afford and operate enough F-35Bs to make the most of both carriers for some time to come. Supplementing the F-35Bs with uninhabited air systems would provide greater combat mass and an extended engagement range, and more broadly sustain and expand the utility of the carriers into the future. The United States Navy is already going down this route with the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray uninhabited system. Initially due into service in 2024 as an air-to-air refueller, it or its potential derivatives may well fulfil multiple other roles, including as sensor and weapons platforms.
UK plans appear more modest in terms of actual platform capability, with a particular emphasis on affordability and cost-effectiveness. The focus of the Royal Navy programme that is examining the use of UAVs, Project Vixen, appears to be on a medium-scale fixed-wing platform. It is likely this will be drawn from the UK’s Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) project that is an element of the Future Combat Air System programme. The aim would be to provide a complement to the F-35B and potentially a platform for enabling capabilities such as a sensor platform (eventually including airborne early warning) and air-to-air refuelling. A rotary-wing UAV as a logistics platform and potential sensor carrier for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare is also apparently being studied.
The uninhabited platforms derived from Project Vixen could be operated in concert with the F-35B as part of a package or be used independently of the crewed platform at extended ranges. Another advantage of UAVs is that there is less of a risk to aircrew if they are used in high-threat environments.
Overall, the aim would be to add mass and reach, improve resilience, and fill in capability gaps to improve the overall utility of the carriers, particularly in the face of peer and peer-plus scenarios. And the timescale apparently under consideration is to deliver this range of options for a hybrid air group by 2030.
An additional advantage of the adoption of a LANCA-class system is that it would allow the operator to better manage the use of the F-35B in terms of flight hours over the course of the aircraft’s service life. The F-35B is due to remain in the UK inventory at least until the mid-2060s, and the likelihood of a smaller overall fleet than originally planned will place an emphasis on fleet management. Training tasks that previously would have meant using the F-35B, for instance, could be offloaded to whatever emerges from Project Vixen.
The ‘cats and traps’ conundrum
The corollary to all this is the potential requirement to reconfigure the carriers themselves with ‘cats and traps’ to at least operate medium fixed-wing UAVs. Discussions on this option in various spheres are clearly coloured by the abortive plan between 2010 and 2012 to equip at least one of the ships as a full ‘cats and traps’ carrier with the US Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).
That is no longer on the cards. However, a hybrid version of the STOVL configuration (including the existing ski-jump ramp) and a more modest EMALS installation (there is room for this in the bow alongside the ramp, or in the port ‘waist’ position on the flight deck) may be, along with the necessary arrester gear. A UK Ministry of Defence request for information earlier in 2021 on such electromagnetic catapult and arrester gear capabilities attracted much attention. Experimental installations could in the near future be potentially available to meet the requirement for tests, even if in a very modest form at the outset.
There are still multiple questions about these ambitions, including affordability and the challenges of incorporating STOVL aircraft, uninhabited fixed-wing platforms, and rotary-wing activity into flight-deck operations all at once. Nevertheless, the potential capability dividends appear attractive, not just for the Royal Navy but also for others contemplating the future utility and evolution of aviation at sea.
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