Page 54 - F-35B and USMC

The Integration of the F-35B into USMC Operations

The focus is clearly on effects generated from an aircraft carried designed for 24/7 operation.

The F-35B launched from the carriers are part of the picture; the very significant Command and Control
capabilities aboard the ship are another. With the carrier afloat, the RAF is looking to build synergy among
the various land based and carrier based aircraft to generate combat effects.

As one Royal Navy officer put it: “The strike force could be commanded from the ship, from the ground or
from the air. We are building flexible C2 to get maximum combat value from aircraft launched from the
carrier.”

Several innovations one sees aboard the Gerald Ford can be found aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth: significant
power generation, efficient C2 capabilities, very large rooms for reconfigurable C2 suites for operations
across the Range of Military Operations (ROMO), and well designed work areas for the F-35B crews which
will handle the operations and data generated by the fighter platform to the fleet.

Significant power generation means that future developments can be accommodated, including the
probability of the coming of directed energy weapons. The ability to drive the computer power necessary for
evolving C2 is significant as well.
Walking through the ship, one sees miles of cable run to support operations, and notably to provide for robust
and redundant C2. In fact, both the Ford and QE have prioritized C2 in way that will allow these ships to
play key roles in supporting not only a task force at sea but an overall joint or coalition insertion force.

The ship infrastructure is supported by an integrated platform management control system. The IPMS provides
integrated management to support operations and combat management. This “brain” of the ship is designed
to manage the work flow and provide dynamic information to enable the infrastructure aboard the ship to
support sortie generation rates for the mix and match strike force.

In common with CVN-78, the Queen Elizabeth Class has a new way to load weapons and enhance the safety
and speed of the weaponization process. It is highly mechanized with advanced automation. Weapons are
brought to either end of the deck to be loaded onto the combat aircraft, and the mechanism for loading and
moving the weapons can provide a mix and match capacity to push the proper loads to the particular aircraft
for individual missions of the day.
According to Captain Chris Alcock, Head of the Carrier Strike Division in Navy Command Headquarters, the
introduction of the new large deck carrier will require significant change in the approach of the Royal Navy.

“There are a lot of people that have never been on a carrier before, and the Royal Navy has been, since the
demise of the carriers, very much a frigate Navy. We are generating a new Maritime Task Force concept
(MTF) to shape the concept of operations going forward. This clearly draws on elements of the past, but
requires a fresh think as well.

“People say it’s not all about the carrier, but it is all about the carrier, because that will be the center of
gravity around which we will provide all the other enablers for the other elements of the task group. The
constitution of the task group is critical too, depending on what we do with the carrier, but the carrier and its
air wing are the centerpiece enabling the entire task force.

“We have worked closely with the USN and the USMC in the regeneration of Carrier Strike, and that working
relationship has been hugely appreciated – and also the work they have done for us and with us in support of
this aim,” said Capt Alcock.

Second Line of Defense

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