USNI News recently quoted Adm. Tony Radakin, the First Sea Lord and U.K. Chief of Naval Staff suggesting that the U.K. Royal Navy intends the HMS Queen Elizabeth its largest, most advanced warship ever built, to be considered interchangeable with U.S. Navy carriers.

“As she has demonstrated already, we can successfully field a combined U.S., U.K. carrier strike group,” Radakin said. “I look forward to this developing further, moving to the point where we are not only talking about interoperability, but we are looking for interchangeability.”

Queen Elizabeth can deploy with up to 36 F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters. The ship is wrapping up a series of exercises off the Atlantic Coast, in coordination with the U.S. military, he said.

When Queen Elizabeth embarks on its first deployment in 2021, its airwing will include a mix of Royal Navy F-35B fighters and F-35B fighters from the U.S. the “Wake Island Avengers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211. The combined deployment, with U.S. Marine Corps fighters integrated into a U.K. carrier airwing, signifies the degree to which the two forces can operate with each other, Radakin said.

In the meantime, there are reports from Great Britain that the British Army is pushing for not just carrier interchangeability, but rather the outright lending or leasing of at least one new British carrier to the US Navy.

A report published in the Sunday Times claimed that, in a bid to cut costs, army defence chiefs are pressing to mothball one of Britain’s flagship aircraft carriers or lease it to the USA.

A source, who was not named in the report, said: ‘The army hates aircraft carriers, which they have always seen as a white elephant, but the Americans love them. They are cutting edge because they can operate with far fewer crew than US carriers.’

The British Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace MP, responded: ‘This is total rubbish. There are no plans to shrink the armed forces.

The US Navy does not have a tradition of operating foreign-built ships. They are more experienced in joint operations. 

Thanks to Alan Rice for contributing to this post.