UK Carrier Strike Group sets out on second deployment

The UK Carrier Strike Group, centred on the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, will conduct a series of exercises and operations with air, sea and land forces of a dozen allies in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Japan and Australia between April and December of this year.

This is the second deployment of the UK Carrier Strike Group. The first, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, took place in 2021, and also included the first combat missions to be launched by the lead Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier.

The 2025 mission is known as Operation Highmast and is commanded by Commodore James Blackmore and his staff from aboard Prince of Wales.

The mission has three aims: to declare the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers with all their constituent parts fully operational; to reaffirm the UK’s commitment to NATO; and to maintain international security and prosperity.

The deployment begins with around 2,500 military personnel – roughly 2,100 Britons, 200 Norwegians and a similar number of Canadians, and Spanish – rising to over 4,500 for some of the key exercises as the force reaches the Indo-Pacific.

Princes of Wales and the destroyer HMS Dauntless sailed out of Portsmouth earlier this week for the eight-month deployment. The task group will be joined in the English Channel by two Norwegian vessels, the tanker HNoMS Maud and the frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen, coming directly from Norway.

Frigate HMS Richmond and Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Québec sailed from Plymouth, and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker RFA Tidespring will complete the strike group in its initial format.

In the next few days, the group will embark a combination of up to 24 F-35B Lightning II strike fighters and squadrons of attack, troop-carrying and anti-submarine helicopters, plus drones, all supported by around 750 personnel in the air wing alone.