Healey: Aircraft carrier under Nato command can be ready for UK use in five days

A UK aircraft carrier placed under Nato command can be ready for Britain to use at five days’ notice, the Defence Secretary said as he marked it reaching “full capability”.

HMS Prince of Wales, one of two Royal Navy aircraft carriers in service, can be ready for Nato commanders within 10 days, John Healey said on Monday during a visit to the vessel anchored off Naples with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.

The ship, which has the largest ever number of fifth generation F-35 jets from a single nation on a carrier, is among the vessels making up the first carrier strike group being placed under Nato command.

The F-35s have been taking part in a joint exercise with Italian jets, Nato Exercise Falcon Strike.

The Defence Secretary said: “This is a day in which we mark the full capability of this carrier with its aircraft.”

The Navy flew 36 F-35 sorties in one day off the carrier on Friday, which he said was the highest rate since the Falklands war in 1982.

The carrier’s “commitment is to Nato” and it marks the UK’s “Nato first policy in practice”.

He said: “It will be fully ready for Nato commanders at 10 days’ notice.

“It’s fully ready for the UK at five days’ notice. That’s the capability, having two fully operational carriers.

“It gives the UK our unique strength and unique contribution to Nato as a European nation.”

The UK and 20 other nations were part of the carrier strike group’s journey over the last eight months.

A future deployment will see the carrier have uncrewed ships as part of its starting group, uncrewed aircraft and a hybrid crewed and uncrewed air wing.

Mr Healey added: “This today sends a message to Putin and any would-be adversaries.

“The UK and the 20 nations that have been part of this carrier strike group over the last eight months, we are ready together to stand up and reinforce global security and global deterrence.”

Commodore James Blackmore, the UK carrier strike group commander, told reporters that during an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific, the carrier strike group sailed 40,000 miles, had ships from 10 different nations and worked with 20 different countries.