Aircraft Carriers II (Closed to posting)

Progress on HMS Queen Elizabeth: A lot of component parts have been arriving in Rosyth recently, SB03 (Super Block 03, midships forward to about 30% from the bow, which covers the forward deck edge lift and where the forward island will be mounted) is now mostly complete and this weekend has been floated out of the dry dock so that LB02 (Lower block 02, which will join in front of SB03 and connect to the bulbous bow LB01) can be floated in and SB03 can be returned behind it. LB05 (the stern) has already arrived as have the five sections of CB02 (Centre Block 02, the flight deck above LB02). CB01, the forward flight deck over the bow has been there for some time. The only major section yet to arrive is the largest, LB04 (work it out for yourselves!) which is still being finished at Govan and will arrive later this year. The forward Island is structurally complete and should make it's way north soon too. Most of the assembly halls around the country that have finished these components for QE have already started work on the equivalent parts for HMS Prince of Wales, indeed her LB01 has been at Rosyth for a few months already!

what is that big pole sticking out the Vikramaditya with the white ball on-top?

Obi Wan Russell said:

Progress on HMS Queen Elizabeth: A lot of component parts have been arriving in Rosyth recently, SB03 (Super Block 03, midships forward to about 30% from the bow, which covers the forward deck edge lift and where the forward island will be mounted) is...Most of the assembly halls around the country that have finished these components for QE have already started work on the equivalent parts for HMS Prince of Wales, indeed her LB01 has been at Rosyth for a few months already!

Click to expand...

Outstanding. Love to see a plan come together. Am really anxious to see the bow attached to the forward portion with the elevator. Can;t wait to see the entore hull length there together and the islands lifted onto them.

Great stuff! Now if we can just speed up getting the aircraft to you guys!

Glad the PoW is already well on its way too.

BTW, Obi, doesn't it just make your heart swell with pride to see that massive ROyal Navy from 1953 with those seven carriers? Doesn;t it make you long for a return to that kind of strength? The UK can have it again if it will turn away from it's nanny state, social welfare, socialistic ways abd back to the free market and individual responsibility.

The US is on the same road, but I hope w will turn it around in NOvember because the pathw e are on will lead to the same for the US if we persist in it and continue to mount the trillions in debbt.



---------- Post added at 07:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:20 AM ----------

asif iqbal said:

what is that big pole sticking out the Vikramaditya with the white ball on-top?

Click to expand...

You mean aft of the island? That is a towerr contianing more sensors. The US used to have those aft of the island on the Nimitz just not as far aft, but starting with the CVN-77 it was incorporated into the island which it will also be on the Ford Class carriers. Here's an old shot of a Nimitz with a similar structure aft of the ilsand.


CVN-70 with additional sensors on tower

...and you can see it has been removed on CVN-77, the USS George H W Bush:

Re: Does india really need aircraft carriers

aksha said:

does india really need aircraft carriers???????????View attachment 6502

Click to expand...

How about nuclear attack subs? do they need those?

Clearly, they think so as they have just inducted their first, a long term lease of a Russian Akula II boat (very modern and probably next to the Virginia's and the Astutes among the best out there) and they are building another one, and also building their own.

[video=youtube;BQSRyptidnU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQSRyptidnUc[/video]

I believe the Indians are building up their navy and modernizing it for the same reasons the Chinese are. They are a big country with a very long coast line and a huge population that they want to bring into the modern era and this requires access to a lot o resources...access across the seas and the sea lanes must be protected and the best person to rely on protecting your own interests...is yourself if you can.

The Indians are showing that they believe they can.

The Coronation fleet review pic does bring a tear to the eye. We also had a big one in '77 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee headed by the fourth Ark Royal, another in 2005 for Trafalgar 200 headed by Invincible. This year, the Golden Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II, there will be no fleet review. The government's cuts have depleted the RN so much that apparently if it had gone ahead we could have fielded no more than six warships, eg a couple of destroyers and frigates and some mine hunters and auxilliaries. Cameron's Coalition have ordered the MOD and Naval officers not to discuss the matter publicly for fear of embarrassment. What a shambles!

Obi Wan Russell said:

The Coronation fleet review pic does bring a tear to the eye. We also had a big one in '77 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee headed by the fourth Ark Royal, another in 2005 for Trafalgar 200 headed by Invincible. This year, the Golden Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II, there will be no fleet review. The government's cuts have depleted the RN so much that apparently if it had gone ahead we could have fielded no more than six vessels. What a shambles!

Click to expand...

It's very absence displays the state of affairs and is an embarassment in itself. God grant that the Darings will all be completed and more, that both carriers will be built, commissioned and deployed with full air wings, and that all of the Type 36 FFGs will be built, that all the Atutes will be bult and more. I fear you will need a new government to complete all of that and hope the people there are up to it.

I hope the US builds 7-9 more Zumwalts, builds at least 12 of the interim Burke Flight III CGs, proceeds with the Ford, America, both sets of LCS vessels and upgrades them to multi-mission capability, and, in essesnce proceeds with all of the points I make in my :

Thanks for the clarification Jeff, also whats the big oval shape that runs through the Nimitz carrier?

btw the Russian carriers looks like a small village compared to the American sized carriers which look like big floating cities!

---------- Post added at 11:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 AM ----------

Jeff Head said:

It's very absence displays the state of affairs and is an embarassment in itself. God grant that the Darings will all be completed and more, that both carriers will be built, commissioned and deployed with full air wings, and that all of the Type 36 FFGs will be built, that all the Atutes will be bult and more. I fear you will need a new government to complete all of that and hope the people there are up to it.

I hope the US builds 7-9 more Zumwalts, builds at least 12 of the interim Burke Flight III CGs, proceeds with the Ford, America, both sets of LCS vessels and upgrades them to multi-mission capability, and, in essesnce proceeds with all of the points I make in my :

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

UK did plan for 12 x Type 45 Destroyers, but that was never going to happen, but we did cut the order to 8 which was going to happen, 2 more was possible, but then 7th and 8th ones were also cut to make way for 13 x Type 26 frigates

now since we are down to just 6 Destroyers, there is no way we can cut the Type 26 frigates, no matter which way you look at it quite simply having less than 13 frigates will compromise Royal Navy capability

the problem is that as each ship is built the next one becomes cheaper to make, and so on, cutting 7th and 8th didnt even save us that much money, as the development cost was then split for 6 ships rather than 8 but it was done anyway

nevertheless we Brits always like to complain about anything and everything lets give some credit where its due, Royal Navy will have a one of the most advanced naval forces in the world when the programme is complete, even although it will be in small numbers

I mean 2 brand new aircraft carriers, the largest in British History and all the new ships to go with them, but how can the story be complete without another blunder, we gave the Replenishment tanker contract to South Korea worth £452 million, thats around $750 million, UK shipyards were more than capable to make all 4 of them yet they werent even considered properly

Jeff, I have to disagree with you about wellfare society making an effective military impossible. Finland is one of the world's most thorough wellfare societies (with possibly the best education in the world and one of the best healthcare systems) with only five and half million inhabitants. Yet we still have conscription and one of the largest armed forces in Europe (a reserve of 600 000, could be augmented to over 1 000 000 during wartime). Our defence forces are well armed with modern equipment. And about Finnish defence forces' effectivenes in battle, nobody has even dared to try to occupy whole Finland after Stalin failed humiliatingly during the Winter War. On top of all, Finland's economy is going well despite the Euro crisis and our environment is clean and our people the second happiest in the world (after the Danes).
I'm not going to continue any more on politics, I just had to say that wellfare society isn't mortal for military.

Lintuperhonen said:

Jeff, I have to disagree with you about wellfare society making an effective military impossible. Finland is one of the world's most thorough wellfare societies. Yet we still have conscription and one of the largest armed forces in Europe (a reserve of 600 000, could be augmented to over 1 000 000 during wartime). Our defence forces are well armed with modern equipment. And about Finnish defence forces' effectivenes in battle, nobody has even dared to try to occupy whole Finland after Stalin failed humiliatingly during the Winter War.

Click to expand...

I will not speak to the welfare state (other than to say I am certainly not advocating for no help at all to the needy...just balancing the cost against other needs), or politics, but I will say this.

Who secures Finland's need for offshore resources? Fuel? Food stuffs? Minerals? Manufacturing materials? The sea lanes that lead to them? The answer is that it is not Finland.

Finland is not independent in all of these areas with her own resources so she needs them to come...but she has no fleet to secure them.

What are there? Eight total FAC vessels? Two patrrol vessels. The largest of all of those being 280 or so tons? A few mine warfare vessels? They may be good vessels, no doubt, but that is all there is and they would be swept aside by any major sea power that had ill intent towards Finland.

How many Frigates are there? How many Destroyers? How many submarines? The answer is that there aren't any. I mean no offense in saying this and am not attacking you...I am just stating a fact.

Finland is not in a position financially to afford the large major surface and sub surface combatants necessary to secure its own supply lanes...and it is not a resource independent nation...though like most of us, I have no doubts that many Finns would get though in a pinch.

The fact is, with someone else securing the sea lanes for Finnland, they feel they do not need it...but if that ever ended and an enemy nation controlled the high seas, the Finns would be in severe trouble. This makes the point I was alluding to.

A good navy is not cheap, and if one desires to defend themselves by defending the supply lines to the nation...trade-offs have to be made and spending equalized in order to make that possible. Otherwise someone else has to bear the burden and the cost.

Finland's Air Force is better off, and numbers about 60 F-18s (Not Super Hornets) and about 60 Hawks. That's it. They are good aircraft and good pilots, but relatively small numbers and with no (outside of help from others) major AEW or other major Recon aircraft (although the three C-29s have a potential for upgrade at some point...I do not think those three will be refitted...the Fins would end up buying more).

God bless Finland and her freedom and independence...and her military's willingness to defend it...and may she never find herself in need of those assets, particularly naval assets which she has not been able to afford, that are nonetheless necessary to defend her supply lines and keep them open for her people.

Jeff Head said:

It's very absence displays the state of affairs and is an embarassment in itself. God grant that the Darings will all be completed and more, that both carriers will be built, commissioned and deployed with full air wings, and that all of the Type 36 FFGs will be built, that all the Atutes will be bult and more. I fear you will need a new government to complete all of that and hope the people there are up to it.

I hope the US builds 7-9 more Zumwalts, builds at least 12 of the interim Burke Flight III CGs, proceeds with the Ford, America, both sets of LCS vessels and upgrades them to multi-mission capability, and, in essesnce proceeds with all of the points I make in my :

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

Where is the money going to come from to pay for all of this ? And who are you going to fight ? The USN can beat anyone in the world today that includes Russia and China. I believe that even if Russia, China and India today put up a joint fleet that it would still not be enough to defeat the USN.