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North European and North Atlantic Defense: The Challenges Return
A lot of people seem stuck in the old mindset of how many weapons we are going to stack on each aircraft.
That’s almost two generations ago."
And in an interview last year with the Royal Navy officer leading the Queen Elizabeth effort, the potential for
re-shaping the approach to building out the new destroyers from the evolution of a more integrated force
was highlighted.
Question: We argue that no platform fights alone; this is obviously true in terms of the carrier, which is
both and enabled and enabling platform, notably with regard to its carrier air wing.
What is some of the thinking in the RN about the potential evolutions?
Figure 20 Artists impressions of the ship's flight deck released before construction was underway. Credit: Daily Mail
Alcock: As I said earlier, we have not been defined by the carrier in our Navy and some of the newer
assets will be rethought with the introduction of the carrier.
With the advent of the carrier we will need to re think doctrine, tactics and training.
There will be much work between elements of the CAG specifically interaction with Merlin Crows Nest
and F35B but also our T45 destroyers will work extremely closely with F35B and be a great enabler in
tactical development.
We need to explore the boundaries of what we can do as we leverage the carrier with regard to our
other force assets, Navy, Army and Air Force.
The good thing is that a lot of people involved in the process have open minds about thinking through
the process of change.
Weaponizing the kill web in which fifth generation leverages of weapons on surface and subsurface ships as
well as managing hand-offs to fourth generation platforms is a key element of the way ahead.
MBDA the key weapons designer for the RAF is already developing and in the process of completing the first
weapons with the kind of two way data links enabling such a handover, namely the Meteor and Spear 3
weapons.
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