Royal Navy warship HMS Queen Elizabeth to leave Portsmouth on Nato deployment

The News, Portsmouth

HMS Queen Elizabeth Media Day ahead of deployment

Transcript

00:00 "So Exercise Steadfast Defender is set to be a continuation from the HMS Queen Elizabeth's

00:07 recent deployment in the North Sea in September.

00:09 It is the largest NATO deployment in over a decade and is set to prepare the service

00:16 personnel for any eventuality that they may face.

00:19 It's been stressed that the exercises coming up alongside Allies will prepare them for

00:24 any eventualities.

00:25 This is Frederick Webb reporting from the Port of News on board HMS Queen Elizabeth."

00:30 "What new lessons and new tasks will you be doing in this fashion?"

00:34 "So you're right, this is a continuation from Operation Fire Drake and the successes of

00:38 that and we go again up to the high north showing our commitment to NATO and our Northern

00:44 European partners.

00:45 We are exercising with different countries, different intensity in terms of the air wing,

00:53 different ships for the surface group and we continue to move forward.

00:59 The capability is complex and you need to continuously exercise with your Allies and

01:07 partners to ensure that we are ready in all respects."

01:10 "So Adam, how excited are you for the future deployment coming up?"

01:15 "I'm looking forward to it.

01:16 It will be a good continuation from Operation Fire Drake.

01:20 For the air weapons party we got to fire live for the first time in a while and that was

01:24 my first time preparing live weapons so it will be nice to carry on with the work we

01:29 did there."

01:30 "Have you been given any more hints of what other training you'll be doing?"

01:35 "It will be a continuation of Fire Drake in preparation for the 2025 World Tour."

01:41 "OK, so what has that journey like been in the Royal Navy?

01:47 Have you always wanted to join the force?"

01:49 "Since college I decided I wanted to join.

01:54 The training was good at Raleigh and then we did Phase 2A at Salton and then Phase 2B

02:00 for me was at Cold Rose in Cornwall and then I joined here after six months of being qualified."

02:06 "So far, obviously I've been in three years.

02:15 I've had a placement in Fort Smith which has been ideal and then a placement in Phase

02:22 2 which you can't complain about.

02:25 It's been really good.

02:27 Upcoming deployment, I'm really looking forward to it.

02:30 It's my first ship, first deployment.

02:33 There's a lot of excitement but there's a few nerves there as well.

02:37 It should be really good.

02:39 It's a really good thing to be part of as well."

02:42 "What are you looking forward to most about the deployment?

02:45 Are you just excited to get going?"

02:47 "Yeah, excited to get into the swing of things, being at sea, experiencing life at sea, doing

02:51 my job in a different environment.

02:53 There's just a lot of new things I'll be learning."

02:56 "Have you always wanted to join the Royal Navy?

02:59 Have you always wanted to join the Royal Navy?"

03:01 "It's sort of been, probably in the last few years of school was when I sort of, yeah,

03:08 I want to go into the military.

03:10 I haven't looked back since I applied when I was 15 and that was the day that I just

03:14 went for it and absolutely love it."

03:17 "So what are the biggest things that you've learnt since you've been in the Royal Navy

03:20 for the past 20 years?"

03:22 "I'd say probably the little problems aren't actually, problems that you sort of think

03:30 'oh, they're really bad'.

03:31 You put them into perspective and you're like 'oh, that's not too bad' and that everything

03:36 can change at a drop of a hat so you just have to be ready for everything."

03:39 "I think it's just planning for everything really."

03:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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