Captain Nick Walker, formerly of the of the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike and Aviation team, explains to Simon Michell how a Carrier Strike Group is able to defend itself on operations.
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aval warships are designed from the outset to be able to sail to a problem and deliver a solution, offering a range of responses from armed intervention to diplomatic influence. The ultimate expression of this power projection is the flexible, versatile and globally deployable Carrier Strike Group (CSG). Nothing has the ability to concentrate an adversary’s mind more than the imminent arrival of a flotilla of heavily armed ships with, at its core, an aircraft carrier: a well-found aviation operating base capable of projecting power through its air group, consisting of fast jets and attack, surveillance, and support helicopters. In times of tension or conflict, an adversary may try and counter the potency of the CSG through direct attack. As a result, a CSG has to
Pictured here is the Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose. Anti-submarine warfare weapon systems and sensors enable Type 23 frigates to defend against torpedo attack.
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HMS Prince of Wales
defend itself against a wide spectrum of threats. Capt Nick Walker, who has flown from and sailed in all three of the UK’s previous Invincibleclass carriers and has held the position of commander air, explains, ‘There is no primary threat, but a range of dangers depending on where you are operating and what type of opposing force you are likely to encounter’. According to Walker, at least for the time being, the potential for a CSG squaring up to another large fleet on the high seas is remote. That does, however, leave a raft of other dangers to consider. Walker goes on, ‘Potential adversaries could employ a combination of submarines, surface ships, and aircraft against the CSG’. Added to that, depending on how close you are to an adversary’s coastline there is also a threat from land-based missile and coastal defence systems as well as small fast-attack craft. Most recent attacks on warships have been from a mixture of conventional and asymmetric assaults. The attack on the American guided-missile destroyer USS Cole in 2000 was prosecuted by a small
ROYAL NAVY PHOTO BY LPHOT RORY ARNOLD, CROWN COPYRIGHT
DEFENCE IN DEPTH
