British Military Pictures & Videos

The UK's largest ever warship, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, has been successfully floated out of the dock in which she was assembled.

In an operation that started earlier this week, the dry dock in Rosyth near Edinburgh was flooded for the first time to allow the 72,000 tonne aircraft carrier to float. It then took only three hours this morning to carefully manoeuvre HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH out of the dock with just two metres clearance at either side and then berth her alongside a nearby jetty.

Teams will now continue to outfit the ship and steadily bring her systems to life in preparation for sea trials in 2016. The dock she vacates will be used for final assembly of her sister ship, HMS PRINCE OF WALES, which will begin in September. The float out of HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH comes just 13 days after the vessel was named by Her Majesty the Queen in a spectacular ceremony.

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BAE Systems has delivered a large section of hull for the UK Royal Navy's second Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, to Rosyth, UK, for the final assembly of the vessel. Claimed to be heavier than the complete Type-45 destroyer, the lower block 03 will form the mid-section of the aircraft carrier's hull, from the keel to the hangar deck. BAE Systems programme director Iain Stevenson said: "This delivery is a significant milestone in the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier programme and marks the beginning of HMS Prince of Wales taking shape.

"The same section for HMS Queen Elizabeth was delivered just three years ago and it's now a seamless part of the UK's largest ever warship, so there is huge momentum behind the delivery of the second ship as we embark on the assembly phase once again." Upon the anticipated structural completion by July 2016, Prince of Wales will start sea trials in January 2019, followed by acceptance in August of the same year.

The latest move comes within a month after the first aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was christened, and days after the ship had been successfully floated and undocked. Delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, an initiative involving BAE Systems, Thales UK, Babcock and the UK Ministry of Defence, both vessels will be the centrepiece of United Kingdom's defence capability for the 21st century. The two 300m-long and 74m-wide vessels will boost sustained operations and can ferry an air wing of up to 40 aircraft (50 full load), in addition to AgustaWestland AW101 Merlin HM2 multi-role rotorcraft and Merlin HC4 amphibious support helicopters.

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In a symbolic gesture the UK’s outgoing helicopter carrier has handed over duties to her successor. In the waters off the south coast HMS Illustrious and HMS Ocean met this morning (Tuesday, 22 July) and the baton of protecting the nation’s interests handed between the two. The two ships steamed side by side, in the company of the frigate HMS Lancaster, to conduct the ceremonial handing over of their duties. HMS Illustrious then peeled away with HMS Lancaster escorting her on her final entry into Portsmouth. HMS Ocean will now go forward as the Royal Navy’s helicopter landing platform and HMS Illustrious will be retired after 32 years of service.

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Type 45 Air Defender and BAE Systems built Khareef-class corvette of the Royal Navy of Oman.

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Four Type 45 class Destroyers together in Portsmouth.

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Nimrod Maritime Patrol Aircraft shadowing HMS Daring.

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HMS Dauntless on duty in the Med sea.

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HMS Diamond escorting the Nimitz class aircraft carrier

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Officer Cadets march past the front of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) Old College, followed by instructors and the College Adjutant on horseback. The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey is where all officers in the British Army are trained to take on the responsibilities of leading the soldiers under their command.

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A Challenger 2 tank on Castlemartin Ranges in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The newly amalgamated Royal Tank Regiment exercised Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks on Castlemartin Ranges for the first time since its reformation.

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Chinook helicopters from18 (B) Squadron practising desert operations during Exercise Vortex Warrior.18 (B) Sqn are based at Royal Air Force Odiham, Hampshire. The exercise is being conducted at US Naval Air Facility, El Centro, in Southern California. The purpose of the intense training programme is to exploit similarities in climate and desert conditions between California and Afghanistan in order to prepare the Squadron pilots, aircrew, ground crew, and support personnel for imminent deployed operations.

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A Royal Air Force Hercules C-130J transport tanker aircraft sits on the tarmac at Mount Pleasant Airfield in the Falkland Islands. The full passenger and cargo capability can be used while Voyager is configured for AAR operations. The cabin remains fully configured and the cargo compartments are unobstructed. On a typical deployment across the Atlantic, a single aircraft is able to refuel 4 Tornados and still carry 11,000lb (5000kg) of freight/passengers.

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A Royal Air Force Voyager transport tanker aircraft sits on the tarmac at Mount Pleasant Airfield in the Falkland Islands. The full passenger and cargo capability can be used while Voyager is configured for AAR operations. The cabin remains fully configured and the cargo compartments are unobstructed. On a typical deployment across the Atlantic, a single aircraft is able to refuel 4 Tornados and still carry 11,000lb (5000kg) of freight/passengers.

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A Royal Air Force Voyager passenger transport aircraft pictured at RAF Brize Norton on its return the UK with troops from Afghanistan.

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Royal Navy Vanguard Class submarine HMS Vigilant returning to HMNB Clyde after her extended deployment. The four Vanguard-class submarines form the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent force. Each of the the four boats is armed with Trident 2 D5 nuclear missiles. Like all submarines the Vanguard Class are steam powered, their reactors converting water into steam to drive the engines and generate electricity.

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Royal Navy's Next Gen Nuclear Powered Strategic Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN).

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Watchkeeper is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for all weather, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR). Watchkeeper provides enhanced UAV capability that will enable commanders to detect and track targets for long periods, without the need to deploy troops into potentially sensitive or dangerous areas. The system is capable of rapid deployment and operations anywhere in the world and will support the information requirements of all three services.

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Ships of Op Recsyr Removing Chemical Weapons from Syria. Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose (bottom right) takes formation with other ships from Norway and Denmark as part of Operation Recsyr (REmoval of Chemical weapons from SYRia) near Cyprus in February 2014. The operation is a crucial step in the international mission to eliminate the chemical weapons programme of the Syrian Arab Republic by June 2014.

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Type 23 HMS Montrose's Lynx helicopter dips her nose toward the ship during escort duties for Operation Recysr in the Mediterranean Sea.

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Type 23 frigate HMS Monmouth's Merlin helicopter is pictured over the warship during an exercise in the Middle East. Fifteen deck landings were conducted by by the pilots who were serving with 829 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Culdrose.

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The Royal Air Force's Queen's Colour Squadron (QCS) lines up in front of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Lancaster aircraft following a sunset ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the famous Dambusters raid. On the 16th May 1943 Lancaster bombers and crews from 617 Squadron, known as the 'Dambusters' took off from the Lincolnshire airfield to carry out a series of raids on German dams.

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To assist the UK’s Armed Forces in preparing for operating Typhoon and F-35 together in 2018, a series of live simulated mission scenarios are taking place involving the latest standards of F-35 and Typhoon aircraft, according to a news release from BAE.

The latest scenario saw four F-35 aircraft operating alongside two Typhoons and an E3D Sentry, each simulator equipped with the latest representative mission system from the aircraft. The trial was the fourth of its kind linking simulation facilities from multiple UK locations to create a common synthetic environment to evaluate F-35 interoperability with other UK platforms.

In the mission the F-35 aircraft and Typhoons were tasked via digital datalink by the E3D Sentry crew to investigate threats in a defined location. The F-35s first located the threats and then conducted an attack against a range of fixed and moving ground targets. At the same time the Typhoons were tasked by the E3D to engage several hostile air threats. Royal Navy and Royal Air Force pilots flew the four F-35 aircraft from Lockheed Martin supplied desktop simulators at our site in Samlesbury, Lancashire. A Typhoon instructor pilot and one of our test pilots linked in from two Typhoon simulators at RAF Leuchars and two E3D Sentry crew joined the scenario from the Sentry lab at RAF Waddington.

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UK F35B flies alongside three different F35 variants of the US.

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The UK’s next generation of submarine-hunting Merlin helicopters have been put through their paces on exercise in the Atlantic Ocean after successfully entering service with the Royal Navy four months early.

Embarked on HMS Illustrious, the Merlin Mk2 aircraft took part in Exercise Deep Blue, simulating anti-submarine warfare, maritime patrol and casualty evacuation capabilities.

The new helicopters are part of an £800 million programme to upgrade the Royal Navy’s existing fleet of aircraft. The Merlins, which have been delivered on budget, have state of the art glass cockpits which provide improved night vision capability for pilots, and an updated combat system with touch screen display.

More than 1,400 highly skilled engineers from UK defence companies were involved in the work which took place primarily in Hampshire and Yeovil. Lockheed Martin UK delivered the updated mission systems and training facility, and workers at AgustaWestland upgraded the avionics and cockpit systems in the aircraft.

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Airbus Defence and Space has performed the first air-to-air refuelling of the Airbus A400M new generation airlifter from the A330 MRTT Multi Role Transport Tanker. In the course of four flights, by day and night, in southern Spain, the A400M received more than 80 tons of fuel in 100 “wet contacts” from a Royal Air Force Voyager version of the A330 MRTT using the tanker´s Fuselage Refuelling Unit. The trials follow dry contacts conducted in an earlier test-phase and support the A400M´s capability to conduct extremely long-range non-stop deployments. The photo shows the two aircraft framed by the wing of an F-18 chase aircraft.

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Voyager Refuelling Typhoon and Tornado

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The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has taken delivery of the ninth Voyager aircraft under the future strategic tanker aircraft (FSTA) programme from AirTanker at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, UK.
The aircraft completes RAF's "core" fleet of the type, and joins the seven multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) fleet, comprising two two-point capable, five three-point capable tankers at the airbase for use by the RAF

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In a symbolic gesture the UK’s outgoing helicopter carrier has handed over duties to her successor. In the waters off the south coast HMS Illustrious and HMS Ocean met this morning (Tuesday, 22 July) and the baton of protecting the nation’s interests handed between the two. The two ships steamed side by side, in the company of the frigate HMS Lancaster, to conduct the ceremonial handing over of their duties. HMS Illustrious then peeled away with HMS Lancaster escorting her on her final entry into Portsmouth. HMS Ocean will now go forward as the Royal Navy’s helicopter landing platform and HMS Illustrious will be retired after 32 years of service.

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