After a hiatus of four years, a Royal Navy aircraft carrier strike group is once again headed to the volatile Indo-Pacific. The deployment has been linked as a signal to China, and there are speculations that the British carrier may come face-to-face with its Chinese counterparts, the Liaoning and the Shandong.
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that the carrier will depart its homeport in Portsmouth on April 22 along with a strike group consisting of the cutting-edge Type-45 destroyer, a Type-23 frigate, a Tide-class tanker, and a submarine. Additionally, an aviation support ship for the two complete squadrons of F-35B Lightning planes and helicopters aboard the carrier will also be part of the group.
The last time the Royal Navy deployed a carrier strike group to the contested region was in 2021. At the time, the HMS Queen Elizabeth with the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter jets on board made its maiden voyage in the Indo-Pacific.
Much like the last time, the carrier strike group deployment has once again been positioned as a deterrence mission against China. However, the Chinese media does not seem to have taken that well.
While highlighting that the US Navy aircraft carrier groups are often found traversing the Indo-Pacific waters, the Chinese media stated that the British appear to be seeking a greater role in the region.
The local Chinese media have criticized a report on a possible deployment that recently appeared in the British media, openly pitting the HMS Prince of Wales against China’s Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers.
It particularly lambasted a report published in the British publication, The Telegraph, that stated that the British aircraft carriers have a huge advantage over the current aircraft carriers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and asserted that the British Prince of Wales aircraft carrier can deal with both the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers of China at the same time.
The report in the British newspaper states that in an open-ocean combat scenario, the HMS Prince of Wales’ F-35 air wing will outperform the air capabilities of the Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers.
The report contends that the Royal Navy’s fifth-generation F-35s would offer a significant advantage in a deep-blue naval conflict against the land-based Chinese J-15s stationed aboard their carriers.
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The report added: In a few years, when the new Fujian aircraft carrier is ready, things will be very different. This year, however, would not be a good year for the Chinese to come out. This is especially true, as the British Carrier Group will be accompanied by an Astute-class attack submarine. Chinese anti-submarine warfare (ASW) is not yet good enough to cope with probably one of the best and most dangerous attack subs in the world, and if the gloves came off, a lot of Chinese ships would wind up on the sea bed.
Taking an exception to this argument, the local Chinese media said, “The British media believes that it is precisely because of the huge generation gap between these fighters that the British aircraft carrier has the confidence to fight against two Chinese aircraft carriers in an ocean combat environment.”
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EurAsian Times does not endorse these claims and understands that a combat engagement between the aircraft carriers would be more complex than these sweeping comparisons. Additionally, China is poised to deploy its own fifth-generation J-35 stealth aircraft aboard its aircraft carriers in the future.
China frequently deploys its aircraft carriers to intimidate its adversaries and project power in the region. For instance, it recently deployed its Shandong aircraft carrier group along with other assets in drills surrounding the self-ruled Taiwanese island. Separately, the Shandong carrier also carried out several missions in the Philippines and the South China Sea.
Japanese military forces reportedly monitored the ships and reported that the carrier had flown dozens of sorties using both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
There is currently no information on whether the HMS Prince of Wales will sail through the South China Sea or the contested Taiwan Strait.
However, the nature of carrier strike group operations could often pit two hostile carrier strike groups against one another, even unintentionally.
Despite being separated by hundreds of miles from one another, there is always a possibility that two different carriers span comparable distances. While conducting extensive flight operations from the carrier, it sometimes becomes necessary to utilize a large stretch of airspace, potentially hundreds of miles away from the carrier itself, to ensure safe aircraft separation.
The Chinese media, which is often controlled by the state, also stated that the British carrier is arriving in the Indo-Pacific, following the redeployment of the USS Carl Vinson from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East.
However, EurAsian Times understands that the deployment of the HMS Prince of Wales was planned well in advance, ahead of the contingency that necessitated the movement of Vinson to the US Central Command.
Previously, the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its escort vessels had been deployed in the Indo-Pacific for over a month under the mission “Clemenceau 25.”
Notably, the missions included Charles de Gaulle’s first-ever port visits to the Philippines and Japan. The common theme across these deployments is believed to be an effort to seek a more central role in the Indo-Pacific.
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The aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales will lead a 12-nation force that will travel through waters near India, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Japan during Britain’s eight-month operation across the Indo-Pacific.
This is the largest naval strike group the country has deployed in years. During the eight-month deployment, about 900 members of the British Army will participate in exercises alongside 2,500 members of the Royal Navy (RN) and 592 members of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The British Ministry of Defense describes the mission, code-named Operation Highmast, as the “most ambitious deployment” of its kind since 2021.
Approximately 5,000 participants are expected to attend from NATO member countries and partner nations, including France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark. Canada and Spain will supply ships for the strike group, and Norway will supply a warship for the deployment. The British MoD did not specify how the remaining nine countries would support the deployment.
According to reports, the carrier strike group will be accompanied by upto 24 F-35B Lightning II fighters from the “Dambusters” of RAF Squadron 617 and the “Phoenix” of Naval Air Squadron 809.
Naval Air Squadron 820 will deploy Merlin Mk2 antisubmarine warfare helicopters on the carrier, while Naval Air Squadron 812 will escort the CSG, and 815 NAS will escort it with its Wildcat helicopters.
After departing from Portsmouth on April 22, the group will participate in the massive NATO maritime exercise Neptune Strike 25-1, which is currently underway in the Mediterranean. Following these drills, it will cross the Suez Canal and reach the Indian Ocean to conduct a series of drills with India, the US, and Singapore.
Later, military engagements are planned with Indonesia and Malaysia in June 2025, followed by a port call in the strategic port of Darwin in Australia.
After that, the group will participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre alongside forces from Australia, the US, and New Zealand, as well as 16 other countries, before heading to South Korea, where it will practice ship interdiction and assist in implementing UN sanctions against North Korea.
Later, HMS Prince of Wales is expected to dock in Tokyo Bay in late August as part of the task force’s participation in the Tokyo Defence Engagement in Japan. After an anticipated 227 days at sea, the party will return to India, cross the Suez Canal, and dock in the UK in December 2025.
The UK Ministry of Defense did not say whether the carrier group would also sail in the waters of the Taiwan Strait. However, any such deployment is likely to draw a fiery response from China, which considers Taiwan a renegade Chinese province and has vowed to bring it back to the mainland.
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