Royal Navy in the Pacific: An ally against China, where we need it

Because of its renewed emphasis on allies, the Biden administration should be grateful for the United Kingdom’s plan to deploy a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to the Indo-Pacific later this year. Sending a British carrier group to Asia demonstrates London’s understanding of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s global challenge to democracies. Building on such cooperation is a major administration policy objective. The UK’s carrier presence will be complemented by submarine and surface ship deployments from France and Germany respectively.

The Royal Navy CSG operated during the U.S.-U.K. “Joint Warrior” exercise in October. This planned deployment indicates that the U.K.’s CSG has reached its “Initial Operating Capability” phase; in plain English, each of the carrier group’s escorts can conduct their required missions. While lacking the punch of a large-deck aircraft carrier, the Royal Navy now has far more combat power than it possessed since it operated two Audacious-class fleet carriers in the 1960s.