[Closed] New Aircraft Carrier

Yep just left Rosyth according to MarineTraffic.

Don't know where she'll be anchoring before going under the bridges.

Might just be held by the tugs instead of anchoring

see also http://www.shipais.com/showship.php?refresh=10&count=1&map=-1&mmsi=235107775

Isn't it going through at low tide, which is around 10:30 tonight?

I hope they have the calculations right, I see the margins are tiny and it would b very embarrassing to get it wrong!

2330 according to FRB's twitter
[url= https://twitter.com/forthroadbridge ]tweet[/url]

hope they have done their sums right - anyone remember the oil rig/Erskine bridge incident?

It's BAE.
Of course they ha...............

What is it going to be used for, White elephant surely? the empire is long gone.

It'll be used for sailing around the world keeping people employed obvs

hope they have done their sums right - anyone remember the oil rig/Erskine bridge incident?

We were talking about that this morning in work I think it was the Dunbar and it was a total rig (one of the guys here was an operator on it). Came from UIE in Clydebank

Rather expensive vanity project... oh yeah projecting Bitish power and influence, what a farce.

What is it going to be used for, White elephant surely? the empire is long gone.

Rather expensive vanity project... oh yeah projecting Bitish power and influence, what a farce.

Do we have any planes to put on it?

It's an aircraft carrier, not a plane carrier - noob 🙄

Plain?

So what if Putin has one? it's a floating wreck and could be taken out with a single missile, the states has dozens, the Nimitz is a great bit of kit i'm sure, the fan boys will be creaming thier pants, having this capability only leads to more conflict.

This isn't Brittania rules the waves anymore, big ships are obsolete anyway.

Right, these are the number of carriers that other countries have:
USA - 19
France - 4
Japan - 4
India - 3
Spain - 2
Italy - 2
Australia - 2
Egypt - 2
Thailand - 1
South Korea - 1
China - 1
Russia - 1
Rather expensive vanity project... oh yeah projecting American/French/Japanese/Indian/Spanish/Italian/Australian/Egyptian/Thai/S.Korean/Chinese/Russian power and influence, what a farce.
🙄
http://www.globalfirepower.com/navy-aircraft-carriers.asp

She's a big new girl...

[img] [/img]

She's still a baby in comparison to the US ones.
Ones we could've bought for a lot, lot, lot less money too.....

the picture avove shows it has a huuuuuuge red penis, that should scare the russians

The USA and France are still the only countries with proper carriers with the aircraft to project their power from distance.

So what is it you are trying to say, our nearest neighbours are european and friendly, that list of Navies with carriers is pointless, are you saying they are hostile.

The fact that the establishment creats a hypothesis for the need of these warships doesn't mean they are needed.

It's pretty obvious the political descision to build these two carriers was based on job creation, it doesn't change the fact that they are White elephants.

We saw the damage a few exocet missiles could do to the British navy during the Falklands war.

She's still a baby in comparison to the US ones.
Ones we could've bought for a lot, lot, lot less money too.....

Wiki says the latest US show pony the USS Gerald R. Ford which gets commissioned next month is 100,000 tonnes and cost $12.7bn + $4.7bn R&D whilst the Queen Elizabeth is 70,000 and cost £3.1BN (£6.2bn for the pair).

It's a bit smaller (US craft 50m longer but pretty much identical beam) but a lot, lot cheaper. I'd be amazed if the yanks would have sold us a cast off for less than we spent once you took a refit into account. We'd also have struggled to park/service it in a UK port.

Whilst I'm first in the queue to bin trident I can still see the point in an aircraft carrier even for a tinpot nation such as the UK.

project - Member
the picture avove shows it has a huuuuuuge red penis, that should scare the russians

CountZero - Member
Right, these are the number of carriers that other countries have:
USA - 19
France - 4
Japan - 4
India - 3
Spain - 2
Italy - 2
Australia - 2
Egypt - 2
Thailand - 1
South Korea - 1
China - 1
Russia - 1
Rather expensive vanity project... oh yeah projecting American/French/Japanese/Indian/Spanish/Italian/Australian/Egyptian/Thai/S.Korean/Chinese/Russian power and influence, what a farce.

When's the war starting against, any of them? 😆

When's the war starting against, any of them?

30th March 2019

Convert - it was open knowledge in the port where they are going to live - BAE were laughing all the way to the bank.
The MoD refused to go with the financial cleverness and demanded their own design instead of an existing barebones one that would then be fitted to our spec here - by BAE strangely enough....

Oh - those figures for the QE class are somewhat short of the true amount by the time she gets handed over.

ninfan - Member
When's the war starting against, any of them?
30th March 2019

Oh - those figures for the QE class are somewhat short of the true amount by the time she gets handed over.

Really? got a source for that? I thought the £6.2bn was the new inflated cost of a project that started at £3bn. Not saying it could not have been cheaper had different decisions been made, just pointing out the US variant was not cheap by comparison.

The Navy wonk on the BBC even said that the big advantage of an aircraft carrier is it's big and everyone can see it unlike a submarine.

It's the perfect bauble for an all-fur-coat-and-no-knickers country.

No aircraft carrier then you get hammered.

There is nothing you can do about that ... 😛

What are you going to do? Argue? 😆

How does an aircraft carrier defend my house?

You are aware of torpedoes chewkw?

& the reason one hasn't been sunk is that nobody (the US) haven't picked a fight with anyone who has a credible submarine threat.

It's a bit bloody obvious..

They are great if you want to go & wallop the fuzzy wuzzies, but a bit sh1t if the other side has umpteen Akula class subs....

CountZero - Member
Right, these are the number of carriers that other countries have:
USA - 19
France - 4
Japan - 4
India - 3
Spain - 2
Italy - 2
Australia - 2
Egypt - 2
Thailand - 1
South Korea - 1
China - 1
Russia - 1
Rather expensive vanity project... oh yeah projecting American/French/Japanese/Indian/Spanish/Italian/Australian/Egyptian/Thai/S.Korean/Chinese/Russian power and influence, what a farce.

http://www.globalfirepower.com/navy-aircraft-carriers.asp
/p>

I dont know how residents of the other 190 countries can sleep at night.

Maybe we should form some kind of consortium with other nearby countries and share the cost of defending our values? Just a thought.

There's carriers and there's carriers. Catapult and wire (CATOBAR) carriers are only fielded by the US, France and bizarrely Brazil, everyone else uses some sort of Short Take Off arrangement with a ramp and arrestir wires or vertical landing,

Our carriers, are basically big helicopter carriers and can't field mini-AWACS aircraft, so will have to make do with altitude limited Merlin choppers with a bolt on radar. We can't launch Hawkeye type aircraft which severely limits the range that our ships can detect incoming missiles or hostile aircraft.

The F35B is very expensive, can't carry much and isn't a dog fighter. We should have bought off the shelf catapults, traps, Hawkeyes and Rafales/F-18Es.

They're a typical British lash-up, an expensive one at that.

We're going to need something for the coming cod wars.

I'm glad we've got it, we've always been a naval power and have had our asses saved by that fact on a fair few occasions.

It's all very well being high minded lefty liberal intelligentsia, but the rest of the world aint, there are still all manner of threats and although we may walk softly we still need to carry a big stick.

Walloping fuzzy wuzzies* is pretty much the only kind of old school warfare we are ever going to get involved in if we have any sense.

*assuming walloping fuzzy wuzzies includes the 21st century equivalent of the Argentinians nabbing their Malvinas isles back or getting involved in conflicts such as the Bosnian war.

wilburt - Member
How does an aircraft carrier defend my house?

mrlebowski - Member
You are aware of torpedoes chewkw?

If you can get close enough to launch your torpedoes then you deserve the kill, otherwise play with the hunter killer first.

& the reason one hasn't been sunk is that nobody (the US) haven't picked a fight with anyone who has a credible submarine threat.

It's a bit bloody obvious..

They are great if you want to go & wallop the fuzzy wuzzies, but a bit sh1t if the other side has umpteen Akula class subs....

Can we not just rebuild a few Sea Harriers? We could lob a couple of Android tablets in the front to update them. They seem to work well...

The F35B is very expensive, can't carry much and isn't a dog fighter.

The UK has the typhoon to do that.

F35 was never designed for that roll.

So what's the F35 supposed to do when the carriers miles from land beyond the Typhoons umbrella of protection. Piss poor aircraft, woefully under armed, short on range, single engined, still not working properly yet(latest grounding is for the oxygen system causing hypoxia). Stupid maintenance software that the Israelis insisted was removed from their versions. Oh and we have to depend on Turkey for the heavy maintenance.

It, and the carriers will be toast if they come up against anybody with half an idea.

We would've been better off with F-18XT's with conformal tanks and maybe even F-14 SuperTomcats for proper CAP capability. IMO stealth will be pretty much knocked for 6 with the next gen of radar. AWACS can already see F-22's when vectoring fighters in to stop them during exercises, even when the defending F-18's and 16's cannot see them with their radar.

Well I might be unpopular... But I worked on the programme some years back, and I'm proud I've got a link to it.

In fact, you can see one of equipment in almost every photo, so I'm looking forward to seeing some better footage tomorrow onwards

I want to see F35 in proper dog fight action ... 😛

I want to see them dog fight with proper MIGs.

Oh and for dealing with the "rag head with an AK brigade" why waste expensive fast jet time when an A-10 or modern version of a Sky-raider, both with huge loiter time and anti ground weapon armour would be much better for the job and cheaper in the long run.

Blimey chewkw it's not a game.

Torpedoes with a range of 50+ miles...
Missiles with range of hundreds....

The only reason a carrier hasn't been sunk in the modern era is nobodies bloody tried.

They are an expensive folly which are only any good against a technologically inferior foe.

More to the point, HMS QE has been built & kitted out so badly they'd do a better job on Blue Peter with some empty washing up bottles & sticky backed plastic.

Reality setting in yet?

I want to see them dog fight with proper MIGs.

Said the 12yr old whose forgotten his Ritalin...

how does an aircraft carrier stop a suicide bomber in London?

mrlebowski - Member
Blimey chewkw it's not a game.

Torpedoes with a range of 50+ miles...
Missiles with range of hundreds....

Like I say they need to get closer first ...

Unless they do a Perl Harbour type attack (not knowing your enemy(s)) I think they really need to get closer first.

I bet the full time job for all the subs are tracking each others ... 😛

The only reason a carrier hasn't been sunk in the modern era is nobodies bloody tried.

They are an expensive folly which are only any good against a technologically inferior foe.

Reality setting in yet?

Is this what it's like being a right winger on STW; finding yourself (kind of) on the same side of a discussion as Chewy. I pity the poor sods, no one deserves this.

convert - Member
Is this what it's like being a right winger on STW; finding yourself (kind of) on the same side of a discussion as Chewy. I pity the poor sods.

How do you negotiate with superpowers? ... if they say you should follow their terms ...

a us carrier group consists of

1 Super Carrier
1 carrier air wing (9 squadrons)
2 Aegis guided missile cruisers
1 Destroyer squadron (2-4 ships)
2 Attack Subs

we'll have 2 carriers escorted by a couple of frigates

[img] [/img]

On a more positive note, took shorty for a walk down to the beach at Abercorn to see the wee boat. Picked up sticks, found a rope swing, chatted about life from a 9 year olds perspective and got chips on the way home.

Very good, start the brainwashing while they are still young.

Back in the real world people are dying, because grown men like to play power games with their big toys.

a us carrier group consists of

1 Super Carrier
1 carrier air wing (9 squadrons)
2 Aegis guided missile cruisers
1 Destroyer squadron (2-4 ships)
2 Attack Subs

Wasn't previous thinking that all that lot was a self contained group where aircraft protected the shipping and most of the shipping protected the carrier? Under the right attack conditions the group was only able to look after itself and could not project beyond that.

We're going to need something for the coming cod wars.

Possibly digressing but politics recently has reminded me of my old head teacher, (we are back in the 70's here) his favourite saying was "a convoy can only travel at the speed of its slowest ship".

Something to consider for those knocking one out over a big boat whilst others are looking for bed.

I can't take anyone seriously who suggests buying F-14's no matter how upgraded they are.

I'd say as a naval nation having an aircraft carrier is worth it. And it gives a lot of capabilities around the world and is not just about flying fast jets.

fergal - Member
Very good, start the brainwashing while they are still young.

Is it the witchcraft that allows it to float that you find most upsetting?

dragon - Member
I can't take anyone seriously who suggests buying F-14's no matter how upgraded they are.

**** you man! Top Gun was amazing!!!1!

So do we have any planes for it?

So do we have any planes for it?

Are we allowed to include helicopters? And cardboard cutouts?

Where's that STWer with the obsessive relative with a million airfix models in the loft when the nation needs them?

And it gives a lot of capabilities around the world and is not just about flying fast jets.

"capabilities" ..is that code for something else?

Code for killing brown people.

PS. legend don't shoot the messenger.

a us carrier group consists of

1 Super Carrier
1 carrier air wing (9 squadrons)
2 Aegis guided missile cruisers
1 Destroyer squadron (2-4 ships)
2 Attack Subs

we'll have 2 carriers escorted by a couple of frigates

I think the plan for our carrier strike group is something along the lines of -

1 x Carrier (inc aircraft)
2 x T45 AAW Destroyers
2 x T26 ASW Frigates
1 x Astute Submarine (SSN)

RN Carrier group ready for WARRRRRRR!!!!!!!

[img] [/img]

Back in the real world people are dying, because grown men like to play power games with their big toys.

Of course - there's the answer!! because before we invented 'big toys' grown men never killed anyone.

chewkw - Member
How do you negotiate with superpowers? ... if they say you should follow their terms ...

how does an aircraft carrier stop a suicide bomber in London?

I don't know, how? Ask the Yanks why the Nimitz didn't stop that crazy shooting up the Florida nightclub.

What we should do is have an old rust bucket carrier(just for show) but then extend or "capabilities' around the world by manipulating the media and population of other countries.

Is it a plan?

Is it a plan?

??? ???????? ??? ?????????

Took a ride over to the south of Fife to see if i could spot the carrier this evening.
Bit dissapointing there was nothing to see - guess it hadn't cleared the bridges yet.
And it was utterly freezing into the bargain. Would never have thought a gabba style top would be insufficient at this time of year, but turns out i should have had leg warmers and a full softshell on 😐

What time will it hit the bridge?
Is it worth staying up for?

Low tide is at 23:30

hope they have done their sums right - anyone remember the oil rig/Erskine bridge incident?

Yep - I was riding Land's End to John O'Groats and nearly had to cycle through the Clyde Tunnel as the bridge was shut. Luckily I managed to use the Renfrew ferry instead.

She went under the bridges at about 23:50. Wasn't a lot of space to play with under the rail bridge particularly. I would put some photos up but mine were all rubbish. Still a great sight though.

Massive death machine on its way

https://mobile.twitter.com/HMSPWLS/status/879472364249075712/photo/1

Our carriers, are basically big helicopter carriers and can't field mini-AWACS aircraft, so will have to make do with altitude limited Merlin choppers with a bolt on radar. We can't launch Hawkeye type aircraft which severely limits the range that our ships can detect incoming missiles or hostile aircraft.

The F35B is very expensive, can't carry much and isn't a dog fighter. We should have bought off the shelf catapults, traps, Hawkeyes and Rafales/F-18Es.

They're a typical British lash-up, an expensive one at that.

Oh and for dealing with the "rag head with an AK brigade" why waste expensive fast jet time when an A-10 or modern version of a Sky-raider, both with huge loiter time and anti ground weapon armour would be much better for the job and cheaper in the long run.