COLLINGWOOD’s Carrier – The first tangible sign that the Royal Navy will get it new Aircraft Carriers has been taken with the opening of a brand new £1 million Lyster Building to act as a training facility, at Fareham.    The QUEEN ELIZABETH is due in 2016, and is being assembled at Babcock Dockyard in Rosyth.   The first Royal Navy weapon engineers are set to join the Carrier in 2013 in Rosyth.

Personnel will be trained on the new Mission System which links all the combat, communications and visual surveillance systems together by a fibre optic network – these are usually separate on warships – and will allow for a much more integrated way of working.    As the ‘brain’ of the ship, the Mission System brings together air traffic control, navigation, tactical pictures compilation, communications and mission planning for the embarked F35 Joint Strike Fighter and MERLIN helicopters. It will also allow for engineering and logistic support.    Named after Admiral Sir Lumley Lyster, who masterminded the Taranto Raid in November 1940 (more than a year before America entered the War) and which set the Carrier strategy for much of the Second World War.     The Lyster Building is a collaboration between the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, Navy Command and Flag Officer Sea Training.    The equipment used in the Lyster Building will be moved to the QUEEN ELIZZABETH once personnel have been trained in a bid to keep costs low.