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[chrisgixer]

Fascinating info on this IMO.

Slightly annoying music though.
http://youtu.be/_l6vX4cL0xk

[chrisgixer]

http://youtu.be/oIEQgBKXkME


We might even get two

http://www.aircraftcarrieralliance.co.uk/the-ships/the-queen-elizabeth-class.aspx

[Marks DTM Calib]

And contary to what the press might have you beleave, mostly british built.

[zirk]

Thought we had no money available or put aside for new toys?, park it up the Thames Elstree that way Boris gets He's new floating Airport.

And yes, that music is really annoying 

[chrisgixer]

And contary to what the press might have you beleave, mostly british built.

All I hear from the press is we have no aircraft carrier. No mention of this at all, on the whole. Or the fact Illustrious is still in service.

I remember sailing out of Portsmouth harbour on a friends 30ft yacht, and my mate nodding at what I thought was the doc side and general horizon. Only to finally see it was actually a Nimits class aircraft carrier. So big, I nearly didn't see it. It was too big to be a ship, way beyond the silhouette of anything else in the harbour.

Queen Elizabeth class being only 50odd metres short of that.

[chrisgixer]

Surprised its not nuclear powered though, tbh.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Surprised its not nuclear powered though, tbh.

No need, expensive and high maintenance when its easy to get supplies to/from it (unlike a sub).

Hence it has a couple of Rolls Royce trents as prime movers and some smaller (re bloody big) diesel units plus our generators and motors (manufactured in Rugby)

[Lizzie_Zoom]

And contary to what the press might have you beleave, mostly british built.

Indeed, and something to be very proud of.

The second carrier should be commissioned as we need to boost the capabilities of the Royal Navy. The Army has always by tradition been a relatively small standing force, only dramatically boosted at times of war. To me relying on reserves at times of crisis makes sense, and perhaps make our politicians think twice before committing us all to war. The Navy was always the senior service , and the reasons for that have not changed greatly. 95% of our trade takes place by sea, and therefore those interests must be protected as they always were. We may not require 28 dreadnoughts, and 5 super-dreadnoughts as available in 1916, but we do need a powerful force to ensure we cannot be held to ransom. Our country still needs to rule the waves as and when necessary.  The carriers, with their hard hitting aircraft, will give the Royal Navy the "punch" required anywhere in the World to protect our interests. The Trafalgar and Astute class submarines, plus our various "heavy" destroyers complete the picture. The RAF are the crucial factor to give tactical support and strike capability to protect all from any threat from the air.

These carriers therefore should be the start of re-building the Royal Navy for the 21st century and whatever that will bring. 

[Varche]

Roll on world government when mankind can devote their energy and skill to the welfare of humans as opposed to killing others.

Boys toys. Impressive but still Boys Toys.

[LC0112G]

All I hear from the press is we have no aircraft carrier. No mention of this at all, on the whole. Or the fact Illustrious is still in service.

It's not carriers we don't have - it's aircraft capable of operating off them.

I remember sailing out of Portsmouth harbour on a friends 30ft yacht, and my mate nodding at what I thought was the doc side and general horizon. Only to finally see it was actually a Nimits class aircraft carrier. So big, I nearly didn't see it. It was too big to be a ship, way beyond the silhouette of anything else in the harbour.

If it was in the harbour, then it wasn't a Nimitz class. All American carriers (and all other nuclear carriers) always park in Stokes Bay - half way between the mainland and the Isle of Wight. Smaller Spanish, Italian and French carriers have visited in recent years, although the latest french jobbie is nuclear, so also parks out in Stokes bay.

Queen Elizabeth class being only 50odd metres short of that.

Yes - which makes it even more barking that we've decided to operate jump-jets off it. Twice the size of the old Ark Royal, which operated fixed wing Phantoms, Buccs and Gannets till 1977, yet we continue to hamstring ourself with jump-jets due to political infighting between the RAF and the RN. Criminal.

[chrisgixer]

Roll on world government when mankind can devote their energy and skill to the welfare of humans as opposed to killing others.

Boys toys. Impressive but still Boys Toys.

Sounds like an extension of the EU that Varche?

A little unfair though In the scheme of things. Uk has has scrapped 2 out of three of its current fleet, and the last one will be scrapped too when this one is complete. There is an option on a second though granted. But that may be sold according to requirements at the time, from what my brief google last night seems to reveal.

Why is that unfair? Well all things are relative of course. Look at the US fleet. No less than 10 nuclear powered Nimitz class carriers loaded wit 80 aircraft each. Yes 80, that's twice the capability of any carrier at sea, times 10. All nuclear powered. Backed up by a further 10 "slightly smaller" carriers with amphibious capability.
Pearl harbour has a lot to answer for

Russians have a couple of carriers but they rarely put to sea, they also sold one each to China and India neither really know how to use them the former only just finished sea trials. Brazil have one, as do Italy(snigger) and France have two. One of which had to return to dry dock to have the flight deck extended as they made it too small. Pmsl

So its The States that need accusing it seems to me. No?

[chrisgixer]

All I hear from the press is we have no aircraft carrier. No mention of this at all, on the whole. Or the fact Illustrious is still in service.

It's not carriers we don't have - it's aircraft capable of operating off them.

I remember sailing out of Portsmouth harbour on a friends 30ft yacht, and my mate nodding at what I thought was the doc side and general horizon. Only to finally see it was actually a Nimits class aircraft carrier. So big, I nearly didn't see it. It was too big to be a ship, way beyond the silhouette of anything else in the harbour.

If it was in the harbour, then it wasn't a Nimitz class. All American carriers (and all other nuclear carriers) always park in Stokes Bay - half way between the mainland and the Isle of Wight. Smaller Spanish, Italian and French carriers have visited in recent years, although the latest french jobbie is nuclear, so also parks out in Stokes bay.

Queen Elizabeth class being only 50odd metres short of that.

Yes - which makes it even more barking that we've decided to operate jump-jets off it. Twice the size of the old Ark Royal, which operated fixed wing Phantoms, Buccs and Gannets till 1977, yet we continue to hamstring ourself with jump-jets due to political infighting between the RAF and the RN. Criminal.

Your first point would appear to contradict the last point there, can you divulge?

Re Portsmouth harbour, yes that makes sense, I was young at the time, totally unfamiliar with Portsmouth geography even now. Its difficult to tell. It was massive though, shockingly so.

[05omegav6]

All I hear from the press is we have no aircraft carrier. No mention of this at all, on the whole. Or the fact Illustrious is still in service.

It's not carriers we don't have - it's aircraft capable of operating off them.

I remember sailing out of Portsmouth harbour on a friends 30ft yacht, and my mate nodding at what I thought was the doc side and general horizon. Only to finally see it was actually a Nimits class aircraft carrier. So big, I nearly didn't see it. It was too big to be a ship, way beyond the silhouette of anything else in the harbour.

If it was in the harbour, then it wasn't a Nimitz class. All American carriers (and all other nuclear carriers) always park in Stokes Bay - half way between the mainland and the Isle of Wight. Smaller Spanish, Italian and French carriers have visited in recent years, although the latest french jobbie is nuclear, so also parks out in Stokes bay.

Queen Elizabeth class being only 50odd metres short of that.

Yes - which makes it even more barking that we've decided to operate jump-jets off it. Twice the size of the old Ark Royal, which operated fixed wing Phantoms, Buccs and Gannets till 1977, yet we continue to hamstring ourself with jump-jets due to political infighting between the RAF and the RN. Criminal.

Given that we are supplying significant parts for theses...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II

Should address the aircraft issue nicely be a couple of years though as they've only just started production...

The Harrier is basically a glorified helicopter. Sure they're manoeuvrable, but they're slow as cufk

Actually the F35 is clearly named as the aircraft that the carriers are bering built for

[chrisgixer]

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/News-and-Events/Latest-News/2013/October/08/131008-F35

[tigers_gonads]

Ref no aircraft to fly off it ............... the initial choice was the Vstol  F35B JSF but this is turning out to be a over budget, over weight sack of shite that melts the flight deck when it lands.
Then we thought about the F35C which is to have a tail hook for conventional catapult operations 
Problem is that the new carriers was never designed to have one and would need to be torn apart to fit a steam generator and associated pipework / cabling 
So we went back to melting the flight decks instead 

We did have the good old Sea Harrier frs2 / Harrier gr9's which we recently upgraded to the tune of many tens of millions of pounds. That would have enabled us to at least fly something of them until the yanks and BAe  can get the f35 working but some accountant in Whitehall decided it was better to give the Gr9's to the US Marine Corps for spares and sell the Frs2's to India.  Problem was, India wanted the Frs2's radar and systems included BUT uncle sam realised that there was some parts of the radar that was shall we say, very advanced and very very secret so vetoed that idea.  Iirc, the sea harriers are currently sat in a hanger near Wales rotting away 

The only reason the carriers are actually being built is because that traitorous double act, Mr T B liar and his best friend in the whole world, Mr G Brown had screwed up the contracts so much that it was cheaper to build them then cancel the contracts and pay the compensation 

Ref the Astute class subs .............. On paper, its a fantastic piece of kit.
In reality, its slow, very noisy (not a good idea with a sub)  and half the pieces don't fit together properly 
Don't supposed it helps when the dickhead captain runs it a ground during its maiden voyage on a sandbank 



I wonder if BAe need a salesman.
Now were is my phone ...............