British F-35s Head For Carrier Operational Testing02 Oct 2019 Tony Osborne | Aviation Week & Space Technology"Lockheed Martin F-35s will soon be embarked again on Britain’s new flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, only this time for operational testing.
The trials, known as Westlant 19, are again taking place off the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. and will not only prove the sea legs of Britain’s frontline F-35 crews but pave the way for the ship’s first operational cruise, to the Far East, in May 2021.
- Operational Testing should see seven UK F-35s embarked on HMS Queen Elizabeth
- A second carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is now on sea trials
- The UK wants an unmanned tanker to increase range and support recovery [???]
They follow the success of two rounds of development testing (DT-1/2), the first-of-class flight trials (FOCFT). Those took place this time last year and not only achieved 100% of their objectives but also covered significant ground planned for a third round of development testing now envisaged in the early 2020s (AW&ST Oct. 29-Nov. 11, 2018, p. 23).
Both DT-1 and DT-2 “overachieved,” John Slater, senior flight test engineer for F-35 flight trials at BAE Systems, told the Royal Aeronautical Society in London in September.
Two F-35Bs belonging to the Integrated Test Force were embarked on the Queen Elizabeth for the FOCFT program during September and October 2018, when they performed 203 short takeoffs using the ski jump, along with 187 vertical landings and 16 ship-rolling vertical landings (SRVL).“If the opportunity arose [during DT-1/2] —and we had done the appropriate buildup activities, and the conditions presented themselves—we could go and meet some DT-3 objectives,” said Slater.
According to Slater, the FOCFT has already proved more than one-third of the DT-3 objectives and could meet more during a deployment.
DT-1 and DT-2 provided evidence for the release to service, an airworthiness approval for operational testing and, ultimately, initial operational capability/maritime (IOC(M)) for the UK F-35s in the maritime environment.
DT-3 will prove more advanced capabilities, including furthering the SRVL capability. It will also include operations with external stores, operating in higher sea states and confirming the use of power nozzle braking to provide additional braking action after an SRVL. DT-3 trials will also open more vertical-landing spots on the ship’s deck. The operational trials, which should see at least seven British F-35s embarked on the 65,000-ton ship, will include aircraft from the UK’s test and evaluation unit, 17 Sqdn., normally based at Edwards AFB, California, as well as aircraft and crews from the two UK-based units: 617 Sqdn., the frontline operational unit, and 207 Sqdn., the training unit that formed in the UK in July. Up to four U.S. Marine Corps aircraft are also expected to join the ship during the deployment to support initial instructor training for operations from the ship. A Marine Corps squadron will embark on HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first operational cruise.
As part of the operational exercises, crews will perform end-to-end testing of procedures, from flight planning to weapon handling, in addition to flying the missions and dropping weapons before returning, debriefing and performing mission analysis. The testing will also prove the systems for communications and data linking among the various assets at sea.
“The current deployment will realize symbiotic integration of the F-35 within the maritime task group alongside the U.S.,” Royal Navy Rear Adm. Martin Connell, assistant chief of naval staff, said at the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) show in London. “This operational test is a pivotal phase of our capability and a waypoint towards being truly operational in the next year,” he added.
Given that the future development testing will largely focus on further development of the SRVL capability, it is likely that round of trials will take place on the Queen Elizabeth’s sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, says Royal Air Force Air Commo. Paul Godfrey, head of UK Carrier Enabled Power Projection (CEPP).
The second ship, which formally began sea trials on Sept. 22, will be the first of the two ships to be equipped with a fully stabilized Bedford Array, a glidepath alignment cue that uses lights that can be aligned with a ship reference velocity vector in the pilot’s helmet-mounted display and allows the pilot to fly an accurate glidepath to the deck, even in higher sea states.
Helicopters have already begun performing deck landings on the Prince of Wales, and the ship is expected to be formally commissioned into Royal Navy service before year-end.
Meanwhile, the UK is beginning to consider how it can further the capability of the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers using the unmanned capabilities being developed for the UK’s Future Combat Air System.
“The planned service life of 50 years will naturally require us to embrace autonomy, technological innovation and maturation of remotely piloted systems, including those from within our future combat air strategy,” said Connell.
“The intent is to affordably complement our manned strike fighters and rotary-wing assets and make them more effective and lethal,” said Royal Marines Col. Phillip Kelly, chief of staff for UK CEPP, also at DSEI.
He said the first priority for any future carrier-borne UAV will be the provision of aerial refueling—similar to the U.S. Navy’s need for the MQ-25 unmanned refueling platform—extending the range of the F-35 but also supporting the recovery to the ship.
Other capabilities foreseen are the ability to carry weapons and sensors, as well as electronic warfare systems to complement them. Other roles could be airborne early warning and even persistent sonobuoy dispensing and monitoring.
Kelly said the Defense Ministry prefers a platform with the same outer mold line to perform all three tasks and reduce the cost of ship-air integration.
One solution could be carrier-launched versions of the Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft/Mosquito being developed by industry, which aims to provide a reusable but attritable multirole platform at 1/10 the cost of a manned fighter, but also the Royal Air Force’s plans for swarming UAVs to confuse enemy air defenses (AW&ST July 29-Aug. 18, p. 18).
“Sensorising all the platforms is a laudable aim,” Kelly said, but not if it drives the cost of the platform too high. “We already have a Ferrari in the form of the F-35,” he added.
Conventional fixed-wing platforms are already more than capable of operating from a ship using a ski jump, and UAVs can be rail- or vertically launched if needed, but the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers lack arrestor gear for recovery.
Kelly called on industry to consider a high-energy recovery system, rather than parachuting UAVs into the water, while vertical recovery comes with thrust and payload penalties.
“Arrested landing on the carrier allows optimization of the aircraft for range and endurance, as does inflight capture on an escort,” he said. “We will use autonomous systems to maximize our information collection, achieve synergistic effects and increase our combat radius. We have some way to go.... We are in those developmental teenage years.”"
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