Britain will send aircraft carriers and F-35 fighters to the Arctic

“The UK will deploy an aircraft carrier strike group led by the warship HMS Prince of Wales to the North Atlantic and Arctic this year to join the US, Canada and other NATO allies in strongly demonstrating our commitment to European – Arctic security,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said at the Munich Security Conference on February 14.

The British Ministry of Defense said the above operation is called Operation Fire Marauder, and is expected to involve warships, F-35 fighters and helicopters, along with thousands of soldiers from the country’s three military services. In addition, American fighters will take off from the British aircraft carrier Prince of Wales during the campaign.

“This will be a show of force to deter Russia and protect key undersea infrastructure,” according to the British Ministry of Defense. “The deployment will include operations under NATO’s Arctic Watch mission launched this week to enhance the alliance’s security in the region.”

In addition to Britain, France also announced that it would deploy the Charles de Gaulle battle group, led by the country’s only aircraft carrier of the same name.

Prince of Wales is the second ship of the Queen Elizabeth class and one of the two largest warships in British naval history. The ship is 284 m long, has a displacement of 65,000 tons and a deck area of ​​16,000 m2, 2.5 times the area of ​​Wembley Stadium. Prince of Wales can carry up to 36 F-35B fighters and 4 Crowsnest early warning helicopters.

However, the aircraft carrier Prince of Wales has encountered problems many times and was unable to operate for long periods of time. In 2020, the Prince of Wales ship had water in its hull twice, including one incident related to construction errors causing nearly $4 million in damage.

In August 2022, the Prince of Wales ship’s propeller broke one day after leaving Portsmouth port to go to the US and it took nearly a year to fix. The incident forced the British Navy to dispatch the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to take its place, even though the two ships were designed to rotate duties and maintenance.

Prime Minister Starmer announced that Britain would have to be ready to fight and that Western leaders “must not hesitate because Russia wants to be aggressive.” “The road ahead is straight and clear, we must build military strength because that is the measure of power of the times,” he said. “We must be able to deter aggressive activity and be ready to fight when needed.”

The Arctic region recently became the focus of attention when US President Donald Trump repeatedly announced that he wanted to annex the Danish island of Greenland for security reasons. He said that “many Russian and Chinese ships” operate near Greenland. However, Mr. Trump said last month that he had reached an agreement with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the US would have greater influence on this mineral-rich and strategically located island.

According to the British Ministry of Defense, the deployment of the warship Prince of Wales will strengthen NATO’s deterrence capacity as “the threat from Russia in the region increases”. The agency said that in the past two years, the number of Russian naval vessels “threatening British waters increased by 30%”.

Russia has not commented on the above information.