Dropping anchor off Spithead on the weekend before the celebrations began, the de Gaulle had a reduced air wing embarked – four F1-standard Rafale Ms of 12F from Landivisiau, six Super Etendard Ms of 11F also from Landivisiau and two E-2C Hawkeyes of 4F from Lorient plus a single Dauphin and Alouette III helicopter. All of which were hangared below-deck for their arrival and were brought topside a little later bringing some degree of life to the four acre flightdeck. The remainder of her air wing, about 26 aircraft, had left for their home bases prior to the arrival in the Solent. Wherever a carrier goes, a strike group goes with it and these strike groups invariably contain at least one hunter-killer submarine as arguably the best way of finding a submarine is with another submarine that doesn’t necessarily have to sail in relatively close proximity to the carrier like the destroyers and cruisers do. The de Gaulle was no different – accompanying her in the Solent were two surface combatants in the shape of the destroyer FS Tourville and the AS.565MA Panther-equipped air-defence frigate FS Jean Bart in addition to the FS Meuse replenishment ship plus the S606 FS Perle, the sixth and last boat of the Rubis-class hunter-killers. Obviously the strike group wasn’t “combat ready” in terms of being able to mount and sustain combat operations but no-one in their right mind would let more than three billion Euros worth of warship roam the oceans with no support or backup. Allowing a submarine to do its job, all alone, is one thing, letting something as obvious and visible as a carrier do the same think is tantamount to sheer craziness.

Representing the Broadsword-class Type 22 Batch 3 frigates, basically refined examples of the Batch 2 types that saw action in the Falkands, were HMS Cambeltown, HMS Chatham (the 'star' of the TV show Shipmates) and HMS Cumberland. Batch 3 refinements over the older Batch 2 types include a slight length and displacement increase, different powerplants, fewer personnel and a change to the armament. The Exocet MM.38 capability of the Batch 1 and 2 ships has been removed in favour of the RGM-84D Harpoon and the flightdeck is now capable of supporting Sea King and Merlin operations rather than just the Lynx. The mainstay of the Royal Navy, the ultra-quiet "stealthy" Type 23 Duke-class frigate, was adequately shown off by the fact that there were no less than seven such ships in attendance. Yes, seven. Two Type 23s, HMS Grafton and HMS Somerset, were involved with operations during the Kosovo campaign as they were attached to the R99 P.A. Foch carrier strike group between late March and the end of May with Grafton relieving Somerset after the first month. As if the similarity between the Type 22s and Type 23s wasn't bad enough, the Type 42s in the line-up just made things just that tad more complex for the casual observer. Five of these things added to the tally although four were Sheffield-class Batch 2s (which meant all of the Batch 2s were at the review) and one was HMS Manchester, one of the longer Batch 3 ships. Whilst the foray into the South Atlantic in 1982 wasn't particularly successful for the Type 42s (HMS Sheffield and HMS Coventry were both sunk), they proved more successful in 1990-1991 in the Persian Gulf and with just moments to spare, HMS Gloucester engaged and destroyed an Iraqi Silkworm missile heading toward USS Missouri. All Type 42s will eventually be replaced, as will the Sea Harrier F/A.2s, by the most advanced warship ever designed - the PAAMS-equipped Type 45 Area Air Defence Destroyer. With the Aster-15 and Aster-30 missiles offering a range of 30km and 80km respectively and a firing rate of eight missiles in just ten seconds, it's fair to assume that a strike group is well protected... but a Sea Harrier it ain't! Most of the Type 22, Type 23 and Type 42 ships had a Lynx embarked (just four out of the fifteen hadn’t) and were predominantly of the latest HMA.8 “Super Lynx” type with the chin mounted Seaspray 3000 radar and nose-mounted Sea Owl electro-optical device, the rest being HAS.3s with the exception of HMS Westminster which was equipped with an 829NAS Merlin HM.1. An 824NAS Merlin HM.1s could be also seen lurking on HMS Invincible (alongside a P.1127, Harrier GR.3 and 849NAS Sea King ASaC.7) with an 814NAS example being embarked aboard RFA Fort Victoria. When it comes to the Lynx and irrespective of the type, all were operated by 815NAS from RNAS Yeovilton with the exception of the 702NAS HAS.3 on HMS Grafton.

T200 celebrations were not just limited to UK, European and US naval ships – many vessels from nations the world over sailed to Spithead and dropped anchor. 112 ships sailed for Portsmouth from as far a field as Australia, Korea, Japan, Pakistan, India and South Africa; thankfully bringing their helicopters with them which are very rarely seen here in Europe, although prior to the actual Fleet Review, most were tucked up in the hangars with the doors firmly shut and seemingly only opening when your scribe had sailed or flown past. Either that or they had left their parent ship and flown to RAF Odiham from where they would participate in the flypasts. The impressive line-up of nations and their vastly different defence spending meant that the helicopters spanned more than one era – types ranged from the tiny, bubble-like Alouette IIIs which has roots all the way back in the 1950s to the leading edge in maritime helicopter combat in the shape of the relatively new MH-60S Knighthawk and the Merlin HM.1… which is both one of the largest Naval helicopters in the world and one of the most expensive at an impressive £30M each! In between these two extremes were types such as the venerable Sea King, the Lynx and its advanced Super Lynx derivative, the Seahawk, the instantly recognisable Kaman SH-2 Seasprite, an Oryx (a Puma by any other name) and even a Ka-27. The attending Sea Kings were operated by the Canadians, Indians, Pakistanis and Spanish from frigates, a replenishment oiler and an aircraft carrier respectively and as the Sea Kings advance in years, their eventual retirement is getting ever closer. The Canadians will replace their CH-124s with the new CH-148 Cyclone (based on the Sikorsky H-92 Superhawk) which is still currently in development. Spain’s future maritime helicopter is, like the French, going to be the NH Industries NH90 NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH).

The whole idea of the events was to literally celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of The Battle of Trafalgar so it wasn't just modern warships and airpower on show during the celebrations and the attendance of many "tall ships" helped go some way to show how it would have looked when Nelson was commanding his 'battle group'. Obviously the likes of the 100-gun, First Rate Ship of the Line, 3,500t displacement HMS Victory were not to be seen sailing round the water of The Solent, for obvious reasons, but it was easy to imagine the attending Tall Ships like FS Grand Turk with cannons sticking out of their sides. Just taking a minute to put that into perspective… 3,500 tonnes displacement – a massive ship back in 1805, yet a modern day warship of that kind of displacement is in the territory of the patrol vessel. However, even if iconic ships like Victory had been in amongst the assembled fleet, it is probably not a step too far to say that even a modestly sized modern multi-role frigate, let alone a guided missile destroyer, could muster more firepower than whatever the crew of such ships, or even the Spaniards with the truly massive 136-gun Santísima Trinidad 'super ship', could ever dream of. Furthermore the CEP of a cannon ball is MUCH more than the few feet a modern guided weapon can achieve, so whilst you can send a Tomahawk through a window, with a cannon ball, you’d probably be lucky if you managed to hit a building in the same street let alone the window.