HMS Prince of Wales will be deployed to the Indo-Pacific for eight months, where she will conduct a range of military drills and diplomatic visits. She will take charge of a large strike group involving other warships, a plethora of aircraft and forces from other countries.
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00:00You're standing on the
00:29newest and biggest warship the Royal Navy has ever owned. She's ready to go. We'll sit at the centre of the task
00:35group that the Commodore has just described and my job really is to be ready for anything.
00:39It's been a long journey to get here, I've been in command for 16 months and I'm about to embark upon,
00:46has been the focus ever since I arrived and that process has been, as the Commodore described,
00:51taking the high readiness duties from our sister ship Queen Elizabeth and taking on here. What does
00:55that mean? It means materially improving the state of the ship, it means upgrading the capabilities
01:00on board and it means training. We have been training very, very hard for over a year now
01:08and we're good to go. This ship is a fantastic machine. She's got an amazing equipment, state of the art,
01:14fifth generation kit. We're very proud to take her around the world and show her to
01:19to anyone who wants to have a look. But it only works because of the magic that's brought to it
01:23by the people on board and I'll take over 1600 people in this ship alone when we deploy. Those
01:30people have been working hard and this week you're on board now in that final phase as we just bring
01:35the last remaining stores on board, the last little bits of maintenance equipment and the focus from
01:40today until Monday next week is just getting people rested, home ready to go because from Tuesday next
01:46week they're not home until Christmas and that's my focus and we will bring everyone home at Christmas
01:52having had a fantastic point that's just described. Of course this is an opportunity to go there
01:58every few years to demonstrate our commitment to that region uphold the laws based international
02:03order and recognise that you know a significant of what occurs in the Pacific affects Europe whether
02:09it's trade whether it's relationships with partners and allies and it's that reassurance
02:13that this deployment allows us to demonstrate. I mean politically times are unstable is there a
02:22broader message that the people here in Britain and also where Canadians Canadians who see by the
02:29fact that this is a British led carrier strike group taking on a very high profile role? I think it's
02:37exactly that I think when you've got a capability like this you can't have it tied up alongside you've got to have
02:42it at sea not only exercise with partners allies so you know that in a time of crisis you can come
02:48together and fight together but also to demonstrate the capability to our adversaries and show that
02:54we have a capability that we mean business with and that it's available to use as and when a government
02:59pushes to task it. So for me the high profile nature and the ability that we convene an international
03:05strike group of 13 nations in its own right should send a very powerful message and we're certainly
03:11hugely grateful for Canada's support for this question. But just to follow up it's not a replacement
03:17though for the Americans? Oh no far from it no I mean I think we all have to recognise that the days of
03:24operating as a single nation as a single unit is largely gone we have to be able to operate with
03:31partners and allies the only way you can be confident you can do that is exercise and train together so
03:37that you know that at a time of requirements it's seamless so you can just click in together and work
03:42together you know how each other think operate their equipment and bring it on together. I think
03:48Portsmouth is the spiritual home of the Royal Navy of course you know we've got ships coming from
03:53from Plymouth as well and as CAG pointed out aircraft from from air stations from across the UK.
03:59Yeah I mean I live in Portsmouth I work in Portsmouth you know my headquarters in Portsmouth huge fan of
04:05what Portsmouth offers and delivers for us and it will be an incredibly proud moment to deploy on
04:11Tuesday on board the nation's flagship from the naval base here at the centre of Portsmouth. Do you mind if
04:18I add I grew up in Portsmouth I went to school about a mile away and I sat on the round tower as a 10 year
04:23old saying one day I'd like to be the captain of a warship and I was in a crowd watching an aircraft carrier
04:27lead. Somehow I'm about to be the captain of an aircraft carrier leading in front of a 10 year
04:32old sitting in the round tower and for me it's a momentous moment so that's how much it means.
04:35The ability of the aircraft I mentioned earlier you know this is the pinnacle of a 27 year career for
04:42me and those aircraft in those 27 years that I've been doing this never mind for you know many many
04:48people for much longer has massively improved. The Merlin Mark II is just light years ahead of the
04:55Sea King that it replaced and the Merlin Mark I that it replaced as well. We've got Wildcat that have
05:00just added you know missiles to its inventory on top of a really really capable gun so it can it can
05:08protect the strike group both from surface vessels and from from air threats as well. You've got a hugely
05:17capable ASAC system which the the Commodore had spoken about that would be reaching FOC as well
05:23and then the jet well the jet is just absolutely incredible and I've worked previously in other
05:29carrier strike groups particularly with the US and people come back to numbers there. The capability
05:36that the fifth gen aircraft brings is just incredible absolutely eye-watering and there's there's just
05:43things that you can do with fewer numbers there than you rely on but you still need some mass
05:50and that's why it's really really important to get that out the door and and and get everybody working
05:55and integrated together. I think it's fair to say this deck will operate more aircraft than we've operated
06:01in the UK before in this class carrier and by far more than we operate in the invincible class so
06:07so it's an absolute step change forward and game-changing step forward as well.
06:30I'll be apprehensive and leaving your family is never never a nice thing but it's what we all do in this
06:36job and uh nearly uh 1500 people are about to do the same thing on that but uh excited to represent
06:43the navy on a global stage around the world so everyone should be feeling proud about that accomplishment.
06:49I was going to imagine for many local families it's going to be a hard thing for them to do with with
06:53their loved ones going away for that length of time how are your family feeling exactly that
06:57I mean we're the ones deploying that's easy
07:00getting to the gym eat at a certain time laundry done everything's done for ourselves it's the
07:07the families at home that are the real effective ones here and they're the ones that have changed
07:11for example not being here and they probably deserve more credit than us actually going.
07:17And it's going to be a big day when the ship obviously leaves on the 22nd of April there's
07:20going to be crowds of people lying in the hot water to give you a wave goodbye what do you think that
07:25might be emotional it's the first time my kids will probably see me and probably understand it
07:31so it's going to be a different feeling for me this time deploying with uh but once that's
07:36where we're just uh mind on task and get on with uh and look forward to christmas i'm just going to say you've been in at EU
07:55absolutely ecstatic for it it's going to be hopefully wicked so there's lots of stops obviously planned
08:02and lots of um diplomatic stuff to do so that should be good and obviously
08:06we get a bit of downtime when we get to all these new ports and new places to experience
08:11so yeah it'll be good. How are all the crew feeling ahead of it are they buzzing wearing to go do you think?
08:15Yeah yeah i i would say they are i would say everyone's going to be a bit anxious about leaving
08:19their family no matter which way you put it seven months it's a long time away from
08:24from friends and day-to-day life but i'd say the all-round mood is pretty excited ready to go just need
08:30to go now. How are you feeling family feeling ahead ahead of deployment they must be proud of all your
08:34service but also a bit apprehensive of you being away from time? Yeah obviously a lot can happen in
08:38seven months so that's always on the back of everyone's mind whether it's at home or whether
08:42it's here um but i would say they're they're pretty proud and probably ready for me to go as well
08:49actually so yeah. And what are you hoping to get out of the deployment on a professional level obviously
08:53there are a lot of forces here but also with you manning the radar it's going to have to be an awful lot of
08:57opportunity there? Yeah yeah so obviously it's a big deployment a lot can go wrong also a lot
09:03doesn't necessarily have to go wrong but a lot can and um i'm looking to hopefully get promotion at
09:09some point um move up to the next level of my naval career but i'm also looking to have a good time
09:13obviously it's a big deploy it doesn't happen a lot it's once in a while sort of opportunity and i'm
09:21really looking forward to all that sort of aspect of it. I can imagine on this deployment it's
09:25a completely different kettle fish compared to any other exercises you've done before. Yeah definitely
09:29definitely it's um it's a lot longer so see people get a lot more tired it's that sort of less
09:36period of rest and more um more going at it and trying to get a job. It's it's just we always adapt to it
09:47and finally when the aircraft carrier sets off next week there's probably going to be hundreds if not
09:52thousands of people lining the hot walls to bid you farewell for those nine months what do you think
09:56that moment will be like? Well proud obviously growing up in Pompey so i'll absolutely love it and i'll be
10:01excited to see it.
10:31That's crazy.
10:33My hair is like, hey!