Royal Navy carrier HMS Prince of Wales (R09) departed its Portsmouth home port on Monday to participate in a massive NATO exercise in place of carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R09), which was sidelined for repairs.
“Britain’s biggest warship today sailed for Norway to lead an international task group in one of the most important military exercises in a generation,” the Royal Navy announced on Monday.
The ship’s company made rapid preparations for the carrier to lead the the service’s participation in exercise Steadfast Defender 2024.
“I would like to congratulate the crew of HMS Prince of Wales for their hard work and dedication in rapidly preparing the ship for departure. The ability to deploy hundreds of crew to make ready one of the world’s most complex aircraft carriers within a week is testament to the skill and ability of the Royal Navy,” stated U.K. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in the release.
Capt. Will Blackett, commanding officer of Prince of Wales, said the carrier was bought from a 30-day notice for deployment to immediate readiness in a single week through a monumental effort by the whole enterprise, including Queen Elizabeth, Portsmouth Naval Base and numerous defense and industry partners. “I am immensely proud of how my ship’s company and their families have responded to this short-notice tasking,” said Blackett in the release.
Originally, the carrier had been scheduled for a Sunday departure around noon, but that departure was postponed for unspecified reasons. Prince of Wales is to lead an eight-ship multinational carrier strike group (CSG), with the U.K. component being the carrier and its embarked air group, frigate HMS Somerset (F82) and two Tide-class fleet oilers from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). U.S, Spanish and Danish ships will round out the CSG. The air group consists of F-35B Lightning fighters from 617 “Dambusters” Squadron, submarine-hunting and airborne early-warning Merlin Mk2 helicopters from RNAS Culdrose and Wildcat helicopters of 847 Naval Air Squadron. This will be the first time the carrier is operating with a full air group embarked.
The carrier initially will carry out a weeklong training in the North Sea with its air group before moving on to the High North to take part in Exercise Nordic Response – the maritime element of Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024 – from Mar. 5–14. Approximately 40 ships from more than two dozen countries will be involved in Nordic Response. Steadfast Defender 2024 is the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War, with approximately 90,000 troops from all 31 NATO member states, as well as partner Sweden, participating. The exercise is ongoing, having begun at the end of January and set to end on May 31.
A NATO release on Steadfast Defender 2024 stated the exercise is a multidomain exercise, incorporating land, air, sea, cyber and space operations, and involves deploying forces from North America and other parts of the alliance to Europe to enhance “civil-military cooperation and national and collective resilience.” During the initial phase, from the end of January to mid-March, the focus will be on maritime reenforcement across the Atlantic and in the Arctic. The second phase, from mid-February to the end of May, will shift to using deployed reinforcements across all domains, from the Arctic to the eastern flank, according to the release.
Earlier on Saturday, the Royal Navy social media postings on X stated Queen Elizabeth will sail for Rosyth in Scotland for necessary repairs.
