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1927: Submarine Aircraft Carrier HMS M2 was a Royal Navy submarine monitor completed in 1919, converted in 1927 into the world's first submarine aircraft carrier. She was shipwrecked in Lyme Bay, Dorset, Britain, on 26 January 1932. She was one of three M-class boats completed. • Design and Career Four M-class submarines replaced the order for the last four K-class submarines, K17-K21. Although they were similar in size, the M class was an entirely different design from the K class, although it is possible that some material ordered for the K-boats went into them. In any event, the end of...

FRENCH taxpayers have subsidised the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers, it was claimed today. It is estimated the French have paid out between €100m (£82m) to more than €200m as a subsidy for HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, The I reports. The newspaper says it comes after former prime minister Tony Blair and then-President Jacques Chirac signed a defence co-operation agreement in 2006. The French public spending watchdog spotted the loss in the details of the 2013 French defence estimates. Cour des Comptes says the deal led to ‘a French contribution pure and simple to the financing...

Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers will get helicopter-borne early warning systems 18 months earlier than planned, saving £22 million. Following renegotiation of the aircraft carrier contract to deliver savings to the taxpayer, the Defence Secretary has accelerated the Crowsnest airborne surveillance and control programme to ensure it is operational by 2019. Using high-power radar to provide long-range air, maritime and land tracking capabilities, Crowsnest will be an integral part of future carrier operations. It will be fitted to the Royal Navy’s fleet of upgraded Merlin Mk2 helicopters, including those to be embarked on the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers. The decision...

UK armed forces cuts will limit the country's ability to be a major player on the world stage, ex-US defence secretary Robert Gates has warned. The UK plans to cut 30,000 armed forces personnel by 2020, leaving 147,000. ...On the UK's military cuts, Mr Gates told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Great Britain, what we're finding is that it won't have full spectrum capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past." The spectrum refers to the ability of a country's military to fight...

The Royal Navy’s sole remaining aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious is due to be withdrawn from service in 2014. Image courtesy of LA (Phot) Nicky Wilson/MOD. The Royal Navy’s sole remaining aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious is due to be withdrawn from service in 2014 after 32 action-packed years, but her future may be somewhat less glorious. While for the time being Illustrious is still conspicuously active, by the end of the year she could be headed for a new career as a conference centre, hotel, tourist attraction or even promotional yacht. Illustrious was undergoing fitting out when the Falkands War broke...

Making waves: a CGI of how the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth will look. They have been joining up the dots —almost literally — on HMS Queen Elizabeth, the new aircraft carrier, the largest warship built in Britain, which is now towering above the rooftops in Rosyth dockyard. The five huge sections from different yards for the 65,000-tonne ship have been assembled. In the coming year it will be floated out of the dock, and named by the Queen — the first naval ship to bear her name. Crew members are shortly to be given a special app for their mobile...

Battle stations! Navy scrambles destroyer to challenge Russian warship off British coast (but it takes 24 hours to make 600-mile journey from Portsmouth base - was Putin testing our response time?)

HMS Duncan, the UK’s sixth Type 45 Destroyer, has entered into service with the Royal Navy four months ahead of schedule. The ship was scheduled to enter service in early 2014, but thanks to the hard work of both the ship’s company and industry since her arrival in Portsmouth, HMS Duncan is ready to take up duties. The 7,500 tonne vessel will now embark on a programme of trials to prepare the ship and her crew for operational deployment. HMS Duncan is the final Type 45 to enter service with the Royal Navy. Her handover to the Fleet marks the...

'As soon as the pirates get a blast of Britney, they move on as quickly as they can,' says merchant naval officerIn an excellent case of "here's a sentence you won't read every day", Britney Spears has emerged as an unlikely figurehead in the fight against Somali pirates. According to reports, Britney's hits, including Oops! I Did It Again and Baby One More Time, are being employed by British naval officers in an attempt to scare off pirates along the east coast of Africa. Perhaps nothing else – not guns, not harpoons – is quite as intimidating as the sound...

Exclusive glimpse behind the scenes of the Royal Navy's gruelling submarine command course known as Perisher 12 Oct 2013 11:53 THE RECORD is the first paper to go behind the scenes as officers are put through their paces to test their talent and nerve in the exhausting and body-aching submarine command course nicknamed Perisher. Dan Simmonds is put through his paces Brad Wakefield LIEUTENANT Commander Dan Simmonds gave the order to raise hunter killer HMS Talent to periscope depth before launching his torpedo attack. This was his most dangerous mission yet. Admiral Corder was standing feet away, his eyes flicking...

UK Will Try To Boost F-35B Landing Weight July 5, 2013, 12:50 PM Senior British military officials confirmed that the UK will conduct shipboard rolling vertical landing (SRVL) trials on the F-35B version of the Lockheed Martin Lightning II stealth combat jet. The SRVL technique would allow the aircraft to land at higher weights than is currently possible in the VTOL mode. The F-35B has faced weight problems, leading to concerns that it could not “bring back” to its aircraft carrier a useful weapons load that has not been expended in combat. The British have done nearly all the previous...

The Defence Secretary was in Scotland today to watch an enormous bridge section fitted to the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier. During a visit to Rosyth shipyard, Mr Hammond oversaw the 700-tonne section being lifted into place on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth. Nearly two thirds of the ship has now been built and the structure is due to be completed by the end of this year. The carrier is then expected to leave the dockyard in 2014 before beginning sea trials with the Royal Navy. The forward island, fitted today, houses the bridge where the captain and navigation...

For 15 years she has proudly served her country as a Royal Navy engineer, risking her life in Afghanistan when she fought against the Taliban. But far from showing Nicky Howse the respect she deserved as she flew back to her latest posting, Virgin Atlantic staff chose to humiliate her – by demanding that she remove her uniform because it was ‘offensive’. They warned the 32-year-old helicopter technician she would not be allowed to fly unless she took off her combat fatigues and wore a sleep suit instead. -snip She was confronted by a G4S security guard and Virgin Atlantic...

For 15 years she has proudly served her country as a Royal Navy engineer, risking her life in Afghanistan when she fought against the Taliban. But far from showing Nicky Howse the respect she deserved as she flew back to her latest posting, Virgin Atlantic staff chose to humiliate her—by demanding that she remove her uniform because it was “offensive”. They warned the 32-year-old helicopter technician she would not be allowed to fly unless she took off her combat fatigues and wore a sleep suit instead. … They told her—wrongly—that it was the company’s policy not to allow military personnel...

British Destroyer to Participate in U.S. Missile Defense Trials Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers could join future missile intercept testing conducted by the U.S. missile defense agency (MDA), the British Ministry of Defence announced. MOD have teamed with UK industry-run Missile Defence Centre (MDC) to support the integration of Type 45 destroyers and its primary Sampson radar, as a sensor supporting ballistic missile defense networks. The Sampson radar is part of the vessels’ Sea Viper air and missile defense system. These tests will task the Sampson radar in detecting and tracking ballistic targets but will not include actual intercepts of...

Royal Navy's new radar revealed Updated: 06:42, Wednesday March 6, 2013 A new radar that can detect a tennis ball travelling at three times the speed of sound from more than 15 miles away has been fitted to a UK Royal Navy warship. The Artisan system, which was developed by BAE Systems, was installed on HMS Iron Duke, a Type 23 frigate. BAE says the medium range 3D surveillance radar is five times more efficient than any other radar currently used by the fleet. HMS Iron Duke is the first ship in the class to have received the new radar...

'These new computer-generated images put into context the huge scale of the largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy. The Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) has released a series of powerful posters illustrating the sheer size of the warships. The computer-generated images show the warships dwarfing some of the country's most recognisable landmarks. Another notable poster is of the under-construction HMS Queen Elizabeth berthed alongside in Portsmouth, Hants. The ACA is a consortium of defence companies behind the construction of Portsmouth's newest carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Ian Booth, programme director of the ACA, said: 'These...

Prince Harry has been deployed to Afghanistan for four months, the Ministry of Defence says. The prince, an Apache helicopter pilot, arrived on Thursday night at the main British base, Camp Bastion in Helmand. The 27-year-old, who is third in line to the throne, will take part in combat missions against the Taliban. It is his second Afghanistan deployment - he spent 10 weeks in Helmand province in 2007-08 but was pulled out after media reported his secret deployment. Captain Wales, as he is known in the military, arrived as part of the 100-strong 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment, Army Air...

BOSTON (AP) -- The U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned warship will sail under its own power for just the second time in more than a century to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname "Old Ironsides." The USS Constitution, which was first launched in 1797, will be tugged from its berth in Boston Harbor on Sunday to the main deepwater pathway into the harbor. It will then set out to open seas for a 10-minute cruise. The short trip marks the day two centuries ago when the Constitution bested the British frigate HMS Guerriere in a fierce battle during the...

Cutting missile system leaves warships at risk The Royal Navy’s warships will be vulnerable to enemy attack after a key project that allows ships to fire each other’s weapons was dropped. The revolutionary Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), which has taken 12 years to plan and already cost £45 million, would have allowed ships tracking a low-flying jet or missile to pass the data to the targeted vessel, allowing it to launch defensive missiles, or for them to be launched by remote control. The decision was criticised by a Navy commander who said it could mean placing the new billion-pound aircraft...