The first British sailor has qualified to marshal jets around the deck of an American aircraft carrier skills, learning crucial skills for the Royal Navy’s future carriers.
CPO Stacy Gager is part of a four-strong British team learning about fast jet operations on the deck of the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, currently on operations in the Middle East.
AN AIRCRAFT director guides an F/A-18F Super Hornet of Strike Fighter Squadron 103 – aka the Jolly Rogers – on to the catapult on the deck of the USS Dwight D Eisenhower as the carrier supports operations in Afghanistan.
For the first time the job of that crewman, dressed in a distinctive yellow jacket, can be performed by a Royal Navy sailor – as British personnel re-learn the art of traditional carrier operations after a 35-year gap.
With the nation investing in its first big deck carriers since the demise of the fourth HMS Ark Royal in the late ’70s, the Navy needs personnel who can arm, move and direct fast jets and helicopters safely around HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales.
Thanks to an agreement with Washington – the US-UK Long Lead Specialist Skills Programme – a kernel of around 300 personnel from both the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force will be trained aboard American warships until the end of the decade.
A catapult and arresting gear officer launches an F/A-18E Super Hornet of Strike Fighter Squadron 143 – the Pukin Dogs – from the deck of the USS Eisenhower
Since the beginning of 2013, RN personnel have been serving with the assault ship USS Kearsarge and the Eisenhower.
They’re being immersed in a world of hectic flight deck operations, maintenance and weapons handling – everything they’ll be expected to perform when the Queen Elizabeth enters service later this decade and begins flying the F35 Joint Strike Fighter from her deck.
Both groups of Britons are immersed in active operations east of Suez. Those aboard the Kearsarge have the familiar sight of Harriers (the US Marine Corps’ AV-8B variant) to marshal around the deck among other aircraft; those on the Eisenhower are dealing with Super Hornet jets, Hawkeye early-warning aircraft, specialist Prowler electronic warfare jets, twin-propeller Greyhound transporters and Seahawk helicopters.
All those chosen for the programme already have at least ten years’ experience of working with aircraft – but despite that depth of knowledge, the trailblazers have found working on such busy flight decks challenging.
CPO Stacy Gager receives his aircraft director certificate on the flight deck from the carrier’s Commanding Officer, Capt Marcus A Hitchcock
It is, says Lt John Firth, the Royal Navy liaison officer with Eisenhower’s Carrier Strike Group 8, “really very complicated what they’re doing and requires a lot of training and experience.
“They’re learning the space and number of aircraft involved and the actual choreography of moving the aircraft around.”
The British aircraft handlers aboard the Eisenhower, which has also been working with newly-arrived destroyer HMS Dragon, have used their time on the 100,000-tonne flattop (one third as large again as Queen Elizabeth) to soak up as much information as possible.
“It's been intense, very intense at times,” said AH Mark Chapman. “Tiring, but I think we’ve adapted to it slowly but surely.”
Fellow aircraft handler Raymond Richardson adds: "We’ll be where we want to be by the time we leave."
An F/A-18C Hornet of the Rampagers – Strike Fighter Squadron 83 – launches from the Eisenhower
One of his shipmates has already reached that stage: earlier this month CPO Stacy Gager became the first British sailor to qualify as an aircraft director aboard a US carrier.
He’s now one of around a dozen directors on the Ike’s flight deck during operations, responsible for directing all aircraft movement.
“The training the guys have received on board is second to none," says Lt Cdr Jon Llewellyn, on the carrier staff at the Royal Navy’s headquarters on Whale Island in Portsmouth.
“It's absolutely thorough, professional and valid. They’re gaining experience out on the deck, which would be impossible for us to replicate in the UK at the moment.”
