After recently providing air defence and escort duties to a French carrier strike group, HMS Duncan has moved on to join 200,000 tonnes of naval might as she works simultaneously with two American aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean.
The Portsmouth-based destroyer slipped seamlessly into the USS John C Stennis and USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle groups, honing skills needed to work with Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth-class flagships.
The Stennis is making her way home to Norfolk, Virginia, after operations in the Middle East while her older sister USS Abraham Lincoln is in the early stages of a deployment which will take her to the Gulf and Pacific before arriving at her new home of San Diego.
Both nuclear-powered warships, displacing 100,000 tonnes each, are home to upwards of 6,000 sailors, marines and aviators, some 60 fast-jets – mostly F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters – plus intelligence gathering Hawkeyes and around 20 helicopters.
They can launch more than 120 sorties a day during intensive operations – including catapulting more than 20 F/A-18s skywards one after another in rapid succession.
“The meeting of two of these colossal ships is a sight to behold and for Duncan to be integrated so well with the US carrier groups can only be positive as we look into the future deployments of our own carriers,” said Lieutenant Commander Duncan Abbott, the British destroyer’s senior warfare officer, who joined the Stennis to observe a ‘big deck’ carrier operating in full flow.
“This is maritime force on an epic scale – the sheer number of aircraft airborne at any one time plus the number of aircraft on standby means this is an air force, borne from the sea, ready to project at range anywhere in the world at any time.”
HMS Duncan’s Principal Warfare Officer, Lieutenant Commander Ben Dorrington, said the Royal Navy/NATO/US Navy link-up boded well for future international and carrier operations, especially as next year HMS Queen Elizabeth is lined up to work closely with units from a variety of NATO nations.
“Interactions like this are becoming increasingly common. They enable all NATO partners to hone their skills and develop procedures for future operations,” he added.
“It is particularly important when we think forward to the deployment of our own carrier next year and the integration that will take place with our NATO allies.”
HMS Duncan is now heading for Italy as she continues her six-month deployment to the Mediterranean. Next up is a large-scale NATO exercise.
