Is the captain just responsible for steering the boat or does he get to decide what planes to send up, missiles to fire in a combat situation?

Yes.

Does he get a nice cake?

(You all know what I’m talking about)

I believe the captain is in charge of the vessel and it’s protection (i.e. missiles). The planes belong to the carrier air wing commander – that said, it’s ultimately the captains toy – he’ll put the safety of the vessel first (even if there’s an admiral onboard the captain owns the ship).

I could be wrong mind!

Good article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/03/07/what-is-it-like-to-be-the-commanding-officer-of-an-aircraft-carrier/#36d70f211e8c

Does he get a nice cake?

(You all know what I’m talking about)

Wasn’t that a battleship or destroyer not an aircraft carrier? Assuming you are thinking of Erika Eleniak…

Planes?

On an aircraft carrier?

Getting a bit ahead of ourselves there, aren’t we?

Isn’t the captain also in charge of the entire battle group too?

Does he get a nice cake?
(You all know what I’m talking about)

Wasn’t that a battleship or destroyer not an aircraft carrier? Assuming you are thinking of Erika Eleniak…

Yes USS Missouri, I believe. Erika’s emergence from the cake wore down the heads on my VHS

Just who is actually in charge ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VHXRYXzEVU

The Officer of the Watch is responsible for the steering, the Captain sits on a tall chair making snide comments, the airy fairy WAFU flight commander is I/C of all the whirlygigs, none of the cooks can actually cook and the navigator is always pissed.

Isn’t the captain also in charge of the entire battle group too?

Rear Admiral or commadore.

Strictly they are still captain in the context you describe as you can be given that as title rather than rank (you could also be captain of a small RIB whilst having a very junior rank), similalry commadore could be a title given in the same way to the captain of a ship to dennote them being in charge of a flotilla.

The Officer of the Watch is responsible for the steering, the Captain sits on a tall chair making snide comments, the airy fairy WAFU flight commander is I/C of all the whirlygigs, none of the cooks can actually cook and the navigator is always pissed.

😆

you could also be captain of a small RIB whilst having a very junior rank

I think it that case you would be the commanding officer. I may be wrong.

Doesn’t answer your question.

Been on Illustrious (not serving). Tis a big boat although poxy compared to the yanks nuclear powered ones with a fraction of the planes and helicopters! Remember staring up at the gearbox, was about the size of a small new-build detached house. Long way down from the flight deck, wouldn’t fancy diving off it. In typical British on the cheap style there’s only ever one at sea on rotation, one in refit and the other mothballed, IIRC it’s the same with the ICBM subs.

HMS Splendid, hunter killer nuclear sub was another interesting trip out. Bunks stacked four high in about a six foot space, with barley enough room to turn over, wouldn’t fancy that for months on end. Not to mention being squeezed into a tube with a nuclear reactor mid ships. Was interesting seeing the decommissioned older subs sat there, some stripped with their reactors concreted into metal rail transport containers on the pier head.

The original SA80 was another classic British cock up, one of the most accurate assault rifles but jammed everywhere it went, useless in the desert, until the Belgians fixed the design fault for us.

Some shocking cost cutting, out of date equipment, with our lads doing the best they can mend and make do British spirit and all. Good to see we are keeping up traditions, aircraft carriers with no planes, with the yanks in a position to make us pay (for the cooled relationship) oh dear oh dear. Let’s not discuss the other design faults and **** up’s with recent vessels 😆

CFH has stw nailed.

Does it have a conveyor belt?

none of the cooks can actually cook

They ALSO cook.

Tis a big boat although poxy compared to the yanks nuclear powered ones

They’re poxy compared to a cross-Channel ferry, could probably be taken a prize by an angry bunch of booze-cruisers too 🙂

Is the carrier on a treadmill?

Where are the aircraft?

Not that our carriers will be much better once they get the F-35. Slow, bomb bay overheats if it goes to fast at low level. No legs, not very manoeuvrable, (got rinsed in a dog fight with an F-16). Can only be major serviced in Turkey (stupid on board logistics software which the Israelis insisted was stripped out before they agreed to buy it). Folding wing tips on the carrier versions need replacing as they bend too much. Software to fire the cannon still not ready and won’t be integrated for years but don’t worry it carries pitifully low ammo.

Poor IR capabilities puts it at a disadvantage compared to the Typhoon, Rafale, Miss and Su’s.

Ignore the Red Flag excerise claims of 20:1 kill ratio, apparently the playing field wasn’t very level and most of the kills were allegedly down to the F-22’s the F-35’s were paired with.

Oh and to top it all off Russian and Chinese low frequency radar advancements should see through its stealth by 2025-2030.

We should’ve bought super F18’s and cat and trapped the carriers.

[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-JDogTLtels[/video]

Our new carrier take off solution….

@ Ming the Merciless – TBF it’s not unusual for countries to spec their own avionics packages, I’m assuming you don’t mean that though. The F35 seems to have turned into a similar disaster to TSR 2 without being cancelled.

But yeah the carrier debacle is so typically British. Will be behind schedule, out of date and expensive to boot brilliant. Wonder if it will be passed off as a great success further down the line. When will we learn 😆

Rafale was great the French dropped out of the EFA project and built their own remarkably similar aircraft 😆

Not that our carriers will be much better once they get the F-35. Slow, bomb bay overheats if it goes to fast at low level. No legs, not very manoeuvrable, (got rinsed in a dog fight with an F-16). Can only be major serviced in Turkey (stupid on board logistics software which the Israelis insisted was stripped out before they agreed to buy it). Folding wing tips on the carrier versions need replacing as they bend too much. Software to fire the cannon still not ready and won’t be integrated for years but don’t worry it carries pitifully low ammo.

“Here’s what I’ve learned so far dogfighting in the F-35”: a JSF pilot’s first-hand account

Yeah.

Sure.

Pilot relatively inexperienced in regards to flying an F-35 get’s bested by a Viper old hand – what a surprise. Polikarpov I-15’s shot down BF109’s during the war as well, no one ever said that the BF109 was therefore obviously trash.

And fighters have carried pitifully low ammo for their cannons for donkeys years, the Hunter carried about 150 rounds each for it’s 30mm cannons if I remember correctly – but you don’t need much 25/27/30mm to do any damage – one round and you look like this

Oh and to top it all off Russian and Chinese low frequency radar advancements should see through its stealth by 2025-2030.

You can see any stealth aircraft (well the B2 is supposedly able to defeat long wave radar) – and direct interceptors into the rough area – using Battle of Britain era radar.

The difference is that those radars aren’t accurate enough for targeting and never will be and the tiny radars in the front of active missiles can’t see them as easily.

We should’ve bought super F18’s and cat and trapped the carriers

Or just kept the harriers and carried on upgrading them

I’ll add (before anyone else does) that networking radars and increased processing power does of course decrease stealths effectiveness – but then again highly networked cutting edge air defences are going to be even more effective against targets giving bigger returns (4th gen fighters) aren’t they? – and if you cut a link in that chain eg the networked radars (by jamming it or destroying some of the sensors) or make the missile seekers less effective – it all falls apart.

There’s a lot of complete BS on the web, I’d prefer to think that the RAF and USAF have given thought into how they are spending their money and know a little more than the various punters on the net.

I think I’ll go and watch The Final Countdown again.

Why ‘Rear’ Admiral?

Got my first “you may now drive a ship all on your own… gawd elp the lot of us.” License on Ark Royal. Officer Of The Watch, for those who understand these things.

Certainly on a small carrier like those, the captain is very integrated into the whole plan. However, a lot of the flying decisions and fighting the ship options are delegated, just too much for one person to handle. When an Admiral is onboard they are in charge of the whole battle group, and greater strategic plan, so direct descisions about what happens with the ship are influenced, but not made by him/her.

The F35 is still in development and will be for many years to come as they expand it’s envelope and further develop capabilities. They are still expanding the operational envelope of the F18 – these things are being constantly developed and tested through their entire operational life – that’s the job of test pilots. I have no doubt the F35 will be a superb dogfighter. It might not be THE BEST IN THE WORLD, but it wasn’t designed to be so. It was never designed to be better than the F22 or the Eurofighter aircraft for example. It has some technical issues but are not unsurmountable (overheating bomb bays, software glitches!!! not exactly huge issues)and these aircraft always have technical issues though their entire operational lives. There is always a weakest link in the chain, you fix one weakest link and all you do is expose the next one. They’re still fixing F15’s, F16’s, F18’s, Tornado’s etc.

Our RN hasn’t got the resources and budgets that the US has so the exponential cost of a cat and trap carrier is unaffordable for us. This compromises the aircraft we can use for sure, but dogfighting is a nonsense measure anyway just like 0-60 on cars as most aircraft in future conflicts will be shot down with beyond visual range missiles launched from the aircraft by someone sat in an AWACS miles away – even F22’s/Eurofighters etc can’t have a hope in hell chance of out-manouvering an air to air missile. Not if you want the pilot to survive.

No chance of upgrading the Harrier,. As great an aircraft as it was it had reached the end of the line – too slow, too small, too short a range, not able to upgrade/modernise the systems, too expensive. It’s an outdated aircraft and there is only so much you can do. Upgrading it would have been a Triggers Broom job and wouldn’t actually expand the aircrafts capabilities by much considering the bucket loads of cash it would cost – no bang for your buck. Cutting them off like we did was the best thing to do so we could channel resources into other things. Just a shame the F35 is going to be delayed.

Seadog has it ( but ‘on board’ is two words if I’m being pedantic).

Can it drop bombs (with some nod towards a bit of accuracy but not at the top of the list) on poor and mostly defenceless brown people?

By that simple measure will the F35 be measured a success. The idea that any of these aircraft are ever going to be involved led in anything as uncertain as a “dogfight” with Russian or Chinese built aircraft is the stuff of Hollywood fantasists

There’s a lot of complete BS on the web, I’d prefer to think that the RAF and USAF have given thought into how they are spending their money and know a little more than the various punters on the net.

I’ve worked for DERA. I wouldn’t count on that. 😀

the exponential cost of a cat and trap carrier is unaffordable for us.

Only because the only way our government can write a contract that holds water is to print it on plastic.

Why ‘Rear’ Admiral?

The junior admiral goes at the back.

“If the Navy wanted a cat, it would buy a dog and modify it.”

Discuss

It was thought unlikely that dogfighting would be important before Vietnam, and again before the Falklands.

The F35 can’t run, can’t hide, and can’t fight. At least the Harrier could do the last bit very well.

“If the Navy wanted a cat, it would buy a dog and modify it.”

Discuss

Hahaha! – I first heard that phrase when working at HMS Sultan a couple of years ago.
I’ve spent the last 10 years project managing the design/build/maintenance fairly hi-tech equipment fitted to RN surface ships and submarines.
The Navy (or rather the DE&S branch of the MOD) are their own worst enemy.
The procurement is driven by people who have no idea what they’re doing, and no clear idea of what they actually want.
Any decisions take ages (years in some cases) and are often overtaken by events.
As an example – our equipment is fitted to every UK Navy Submarine, and all major surface ships except the new carriers.
The plants are different on every class of vessel, despite the specifications being close enough to be able to use the same kit across multiple platforms if very small compromises were made.
However, as the MOD are one big dysfunctional family this is never going to happen, so the R&D costs stay sky high, and the spares inventory is 5 x as big as it needs to be.

Although it would seem actual pilots are stating the opposite Zokes eg – see link.

Missile technology has come on quite a bit since the Falklands. We now have capable beyond visual range air to air missiles where a blip on a radar somewhere (doesn’t have to be the radar on the aircraft) is targeted and the missile deployed. No need for dogfighting. The F35 was always tipped as the last western piloted fighter ever, so after F35 everything will be UAV’s and missiles. The pilot is the weakest point in the system – they’re too slow, prone to making mistakes, soft and squidgy so can only handle a paltry 9G’s compromising the manoeuvrability significantly, they need to be able to breathe and be kept at a narrow temperature range and have lots of displays and a small room to sit in. The point is that aircraft are designed for multiple missions dogfighting is only one aspect. An F16 was initially conceived as a pure dogfighter though its operational envelope expanded through its life to an effective fighter bomber. The F35 has been designed as something other than a pure dogfighter, so more of a jack of all trades. The benefits the F35 has being the latest and greatest in technology is that the pilot will be doing less flying and spending more of their time thinking about and executing the mission.

Can’t run? Nothing can run from an air to air missile

Can’t hide? Nothing is completely stealthy and radar technology advancements will always outpace aircraft stealth technology. Aircraft stealth is a red herring. Pointless. Within months of the F117 becoming public the UK military boffins developed a way of tracking them. All those decades of development and billions of dollars invested all for nothing.

Can’t fight? we’ll see. Its at the beginning of its development with a huge amount more potential to be unlocked over the coming years and decades. An F-15 can fly with only one wing. Who knew? It wasn’t designed to be able to fly with one wing, but since a pilot brought one back with only one wing a whole new section of aerospace R&D has emerged. These things usually end up much more capable than they were when they start out.

As to the unique way our military programmes are funded? Well it has more to do with development of key skills and technology than value for money. You just don’t buy an F35 – you invest in the programme with key technology transfer going on. The UK is an important member of the programme and as a result we have developed loads of technologies off the back of it. Its far more strategic than just buying a product off the shelf. And that technology which we develop will earn us a significant income over coming decades. It’s like the F1 of the aviation world.

Planes?

On an aircraft carrier?

Getting a bit ahead of ourselves there, aren’t we?

Oh he of little faith. At some point we’ll have some lovely Joint Strikes, all on a carrier. We’ll even have a spare carrier for spares!

We just need to make sure we select the correct Joint Strike. And not get into any expeditionary scraps in the meantime.