Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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Pelican
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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U.K. Carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth Wraps 7-Month Maiden Deployment


HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) and escorts of the Royal Navy Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG 21) returned to their home ports in HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth marking the end of its seven-month maiden deployment.

CSG 21 sailed 49,000 nautical miles to the Indo-Pacific and back. CSG 21 ships arriving home today were aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, destroyers HMS Diamond (D34) and HMS Defender (D36), frigates HMS Richmond (F239) and HMS Kent (F78) and replenishment ship RFA Fort Victoria (A387).

The remaining ships of the CSG 21 had returned home earlier. Destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) detached from the group in late October and arrived home in Mayport, Fla., on Nov. 24. Meanwhile, Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen (F805) detached from the group on Dec. 2 and arrived home at Nieuwe Haven Naval Base, Den Helder on Dec. 5. U.K. replenishment ship RFA Tidespring (A136), which was replaced as the CSG’s tanker by RFA Tidesurge (A138) on Nov. 20, returned home to Portland Port, Devon on Dec. 2. The U.K rotated its Astute-class submarines for the deployment, with one submarine accompanying the group at various periods.

The U.K. air elements of CSG 21 flew home yesterday and today, with the Merlin helicopters of 820 Naval Air Squadron and 845 NAS returning to Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose and RNAS Yeovilton, respectively, yesterday. The Wildcat helicopters of 815 NAS returned to RNAS Yeovilton yesterday. The Royal Air Force 617 Squadron “The Dambusters” arrived home at RAF Marham today.

The “Wake Island Avengers” of U.S. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211 arrived home at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma yesterday after departing from CSG 21 last month. The squadron had been deployed aboard Queen Elizabeth together with 617 Squadron since the end of April 2021. A U.S. Marine Corps release stated that during the Royal Navy carrier’s initial operating deployment, VMFA-211 and the 617 squadron completed more than 1,278 sorties, flew more than 2200 hours, and conducted 44 combat missions in support of the counter-ISIS mission — Operation Inherent Resolve.

Continues at - https://news.usni.org/2021/12/09/u-k-ca ... Muq24PBadE
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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The Carrier Strike Group comes home

See - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXXqhOiYetk
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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Royal Navy

How do you sum up the once-in-a-lifetime deployment of the Carrier Strike Group?
Perhaps this fact-packed poster showing where the ships have been and what they've done will help.
And some of the statistics the ships collected for us give you an idea of the scale of the endeavour: very few navies can send a fifth-generation carrier group half way around the world on operations and exercises for seven months.
Get your giant poster in the January 2022 edition of Navy News as a memento.
Or you can download a smaller version here:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... al-mission
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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What did the 2021 Carrier Strike Group deployment achieve?

After more than 7 months away, the carrier strike group has returned to the UK. While official channels rightly trumpet the many achievements of the deployment, here we provide a balanced assessment of the trip which has not been entirely plain sailing.

See - https://www.navylookout.com/what-did-th ... t-achieve/
HMS Pelican 1938 - 1958 GGCV L86 U86 F86 What I Have I Hold ~ A wonderful bird is the Pelican its beak can hold more than its belly can.
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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Some images taken from Tidesurge are at:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXZHqGtrNU_ ... e63-dLBSW0
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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Royal Navy a ‘leading, globally deployable navy’ says report


Sir Philip Jones told the Defence Committee that the Royal Navy is, along with the US and France, one of the few navies that is “globally deployable and effective at all the tasks they are given”.
Notwithstanding the important role of allies in CSG21, he confirmed, “Very few nations
are capable of deploying a genuinely credible carrier strike group, not just to that region
but anywhere”. The fact that the Navy was able to deliver CSG21 while simultaneously exercising a second aircraft carrier and deploying the Littoral Response Group (North) task force for the first time is additionally impressive, note the Committee.

Continues at - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/royal-n ... ys-report/
HMS Pelican 1938 - 1958 GGCV L86 U86 F86 What I Have I Hold ~ A wonderful bird is the Pelican its beak can hold more than its belly can.
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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RFA Fort Victoria returns to Fife "spiritual home" after major deployment

ROYAL FLEET AUXILIARY ship, RFA Fort Victoria, has returned to the UK after a 195-day deployment with the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group.
The 33,675-tonne Auxiliary ship arrived back at Defence Munitions (DM) Crombie in West Fife on Sunday, December 12.

Speaking of the Carrier Strike Group deployment, Commanding Officer of RFA Fort Victoria Captain Chris Clarke said: “RFA Fort Victoria has proven that she is an indispensable part of the Carrier Strike Group.

“She and other RFAs are the means by which the Royal Navy has the flexibility to manoeuvre and sustain itself to potentially strike at a time and place of its own choosing.”

He continued: “Over the seven-month deployment we have steamed just under 40,000 miles, we’ve crossed the equator, had four port visits, transferred 27,000 tonnes of fuel and 350 tonnes of ammunition, food, spares and provisions while underway at sea. We have also undertaken 635 helicopter landings from our three embarked Merlin Mk4s of 845 Naval Air Squadron.”

Captain Clarke and his 120-strong crew on board Fort Victoria set off from the Fife depot in late April this year.

Continues, including photos, at - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... deployment
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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RAF

During Op FORTIS, the Voyager Force flew over 220 hours, transported 1,700 people and dispensed 180 Tonnes of fuel via Air-to-Air Refuelling in support of Carrier Strike Group 21. Voyager met CSG21 at many points, including the furthest point from the UK in Guam.

See - https://twitter.com/RAFBrizeNorton/stat ... 4643617797 - For photos.
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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Cost of HMS Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group deployment


The Ministry of Defence has advised that the additional operating cost of deploying HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group is currently estimated at £73 million (not including the loss of an F-35 jet).

The information came to light via the following exchange:

John Healey, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, asked:
“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost has been of maintaining the seven month deployment of the Carrier Strike Group to the Indo-Pacific to date.”

James Heappey, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, responded:
“The additional operating cost of deploying the Carrier Strike Group is currently estimated at £73 million, this covers any costs incurred above what those personnel and capabilities deployed would usually cost to defence, for example fuel costs, operational allowances, and other incidental costs. Further work is ongoing to refine those cost estimates and provide a final figure.”

The deployment, to me at least, seems like good value for money when considering the number of countries visited. Don’t take my word for it, here’s a list. There’s a more detailed list here.

See - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/cost-of ... eployment/
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Re: Carrier Strike Group 2021 - CSG21

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Sailors aboard USS John C. Stennis sharpen weaponry skills on deployment with British carrier


For a handful of Americans on a ship full of sailors who drive on the wrong side of the road back home, it was inevitable that there’d be a few bumps in the passageways of the Royal Navy’s new fleet flagship, the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

But when it came to preparing and loading weapons for the U.S. Marine F-35B that operated off the Queen Elizabeth on its first deployment, there weren’t many bumps at all for a team of 18 aviation ordnancemen from USS John C. Stennis.

“Well, with some of the Scottish accents, there was a bit of ‘excuse me, what did you say?’ at first,” said Chief Petty Officer Jesse Robertson, senior enlisted sailor on the Stennis team.

Some of that involved technical terms, but it also meant learning that “scran” in British English meant chow, he said. And the food, while good, was different — “more European and Asian,” said Petty Officer Christopher Cannon.

Deploying with the Queen Elizabeth meant a particularly long time away from home for the Stennis sailors — nine months in all.

“There’s always a challenge going on deployment, but also a lot of excitement being able to go on a foreign aircraft carrier,” Robertson said.

They embarked well before the British carrier’s maiden effort, leading a carrier strike group in the May Exercise Strike Warrior, as part of NATO’s Exercise Joint Warrior 21-1 in the waters around Great Britain.

From there, the carrier conducted joint operations with NATO allies in the Atlantic and Mediterranean and ran combat operations against ISIS in Syria before heading to the Indian Ocean and the flashpoints of the South China Sea.

“It’s a learning experience for everyone ... we get a sense of their rhythm of operations” said Lt. Michael Brown, who was the officer in charge for the Stennis team on the Queen Elizabeth.

Continues at - https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2 ... 24142.html
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