About bloody time..

[JAG]

Two new Aircraft Carriers

[gwilson]

Saw that in the paper yesterday i think the admiral of the fleet was quoted as saying "he'll believe when he sees them at sea"

Im sure these were announced during options for change stuff about 10 years ago

Where are they gonna get the extra matelots required to keep both of them sailing and painted??

[fezboy]

From Defence Industry Daily

'The Queen Elizabeth Class' complement will be around 1,500 all-told, including 600 or so in the Joint Force Air Group (JFAG) who will support and fly the embarked aircraft. The winning ACA "Design Delta" is fitted with a ski-jump to operate short take off and vertical landing aircraft like the F-35B STOVL Joint Strike Fighter, but the carriers can be altered to accommodate catapults and arrestor gear to fly conventional carrier aircraft. Britain considers this valuable future-proofing for a ship with a 50 year life.

With respect to its aircraft complement, the JFAG will include about 30 F-35B Lightning II STOVL fighters, 6 EH101 Merlin helicopters, and up to 4 airborne early warning aircraft systems of an as-yet undetermined kind (though they are likely to be based on the EH101 Merlin). AEW Options discussed to date have included variants of the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, EH101 Merlin helicopter, or even the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor.'

Guess we are the 51st state...

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by fezboy

From Defence Industry Daily

'The Queen Elizabeth Class' complement will be around 1,500 all-told, including 600 or so in the Joint Force Air Group (JFAG) who will support and fly the embarked aircraft. The winning ACA "Design Delta" is fitted with a ski-jump to operate short take off and vertical landing aircraft like the F-35B STOVL Joint Strike Fighter, but the carriers can be altered to accommodate catapults and arrestor gear to fly conventional carrier aircraft. Britain considers this valuable future-proofing for a ship with a 50 year life.

With respect to its aircraft complement, the JFAG will include about 30 F-35B Lightning II STOVL fighters, 6 EH101 Merlin helicopters, and up to 4 airborne early warning aircraft systems of an as-yet undetermined kind (though they are likely to be based on the EH101 Merlin). AEW Options discussed to date have included variants of the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, EH101 Merlin helicopter, or even the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor.'

Guess we are the 51st state...

Bloody Hell... you can speak Klingon

[stevechesh]

Originally Posted by gwilson

Saw that in the paper yesterday i think the admiral of the fleet was quoted as saying "he'll believe when he sees them at sea"

Im sure these were announced during options for change stuff about 10 years ago

Where are they gonna get the extra matelots required to keep both of them sailing and painted??

Ahh, good old days eh Gareth. Bet you wish you hadn't left . . . . Join the Navy and clean the world!

Imagine doing Prod A on something that big. There wouldn't be enough people spare to do it!

[Scuby]

Hurray. Two big aircraft carriers, and no planes to put on them!

David

[Paul Oliver]

I don't believe we will ever see either of these ships, its a politically geared announcement as we may have a general election soon, so they can keep the forces and those with national interests happy, also the workers in the two ports due to build them and obviously the relevant trade unions happy.

They are not gonna happen

I'm also surprised at the names, i would have thought that HMS Diversity and Equality would have been one and HMS Welfare State the other

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Paul Oliver

I don't believe we will ever see either of these ships, its a politically geared announcement as we may have a general election soon, so they can keep the forces and those with national interests happy, also the workers in the two ports due to build them and obviously the relevant trade unions happy.

They are not gonna happen

I'm also surprised at the names, i would have thought that HMS Diversity and Equality would have been one and HMS Welfare State the other

AND they reckon they are going to get all 8 Type 45 air warfare destroyers, yet they can't even afford basic first aid kits (ie shell dressings, elastoplast, blister cream, paracetomol and immodium) for section medics on operations? And after that's after they've disbanded 3 infantry battalions.

Like you, I'll believe it when see it.

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by fezboy

Guess we are the 51st state...

If you want the best, you go to the people who've got the money, expertise & resources to make it happen. The yanks have pretty well written the book on carriers and carrier-borne ops since WW2, so why try to reinvent the wheel?

Same over here too, we are buying two air warfare destroyers, Spanish design but the system is Aegis, Harpoon etc, we fly Blackhawks, FA18s and F111s and are about to buy FA18 Superhornets as a stop gap to replace the F111, before the F35 comes on line. And we've just bought a regiment's worth of M1 Abrams MBTs. We bought Swedish designed diesel-electric submarines a few years back (politically motivated as the socialist cabal that ran Canberra back then felt more comfortable buying from a similarly orientated government) and they have been nothing but trouble, they nearly lost one a couple of years ago; now if they'd bought em off the Germans..............

It's a bit like do I buy a Ford or a Citroen? The Citroen is probably OK and looks pretty cool but I know I can get spares for the Ford for the next 30 years and anywhere I go, the mechanics know how to work on them.

[Keith Whittaker]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

It's a bit like do I buy a Ford or a Citroen? The Citroen is probably OK and looks pretty cool but I know I can get spares for the Ford for the next 30 years and anywhere I go, the mechanics know how to work on them.

That's because they get a lot more practice.