Aircraft Carriers II (Closed to posting)

asif iqbal said:

Nice video!!

It's sad towards the end because the last guy says the young workers will never probably see anything like this again

And it's true, once these two are built that will be it, the story ends and if we become a independent nation come the referendum in autum of 2014 Rosyth will not get the maintenance, overhaul and upgrade contracts

A good day, and a second carrier to look forward too, would be great if we could just keep building these carriers one after another and have a carrier fleet of 4-6 carriers Along with full carrier strike group elements

What people don't realise is that these contracts provide lots and lots of jobs, it's good for the local economy and maybe some day they might even get some export orders like France did for the Mistral Class the payback is massive

Having a fleet of 6 Queen Elizabeth carriers would allow 4 operational at any one time, once we get into a routine of 6-9 month deployments they could be like the Americans, having 1 in the Middle East, 1 in the Atlanic, 1 in the Pacific and 1 on duities guarding UK interests back at home, they would full fill foreign policy's act as a deterrence and bring UK to international stage, if there was a disaster like the 2004 Tsunami we could send one straight into action and that would raise the profile of the UK, they would pay back many times thier worth in the longer term

MoD has set aside £15-20 billion for 4 new SSBN which will replace the 4 Vanguard Class SSBN, for that price we could easily build another 4 Queen Elizabeth Carriers, but Royal Navy is more keen on SSBN than carriers, which is better having second strike or strong carrier fleet?? Well you decide

No one sees a SSBN or even hears one, but we all see a carrier strike group loud and clear!!

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Air Force Brat said:

Its obviously better to have both, but when you must go either or, you would hope the Americans would manage much of that second strike, so if I were GB I would tend to want my defense up front, however, carriers don't go any where without an audience, and the SSBN is always the ace up your sleeve, you hope you don't have to play it, but you know its there. Kind of like carrying your M-4, but having your 1911 in your SMOB holster, if you get down to that its one step away from a knife fight? BRAT

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The U.S. Navy’s future carrier aircraft launch system concluded a unique test event today earlier than planned. The Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment Program Office (PMA-251)’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, (EMALS), completed shared generator testing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.

EMALS is replacing the current steam catapult system on aircraft carriers, beginning with the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78).

“It is important that we ensure proper sharing and operation of the generators at the land-based facility prior to testing the full four-catapult system onboard CVN 78, reducing risk to the ship,” said George Sulich, EMALS integrated team lead.

With EMALS, the aircraft is attached to a shuttle that is propelled down the length of the catapult track by an electromagnetic field produced by the linear motors. The motor generator stores the system’s energy in the inertia of its rotor and releases that energy upon initiation of the aircraft launch.

EMALS consists of six subsystems working together and sharing components to power the four catapults on the ship. The test site only has one catapult so, up to now; the system has only had to control one launcher.

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Two highly-accurate one-tonne scale models of HMS Queen Elizabeth and future tanker RFA Tidespring have been tested in Europe’s largest indoor water tank in Gosport to determine how the two ships can sail safely in company. Key to any future operations by the carrier – the largest warship ever to sail under the White Ensign – will be sustaining her thousands of miles from home.

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asif iqbal said:

well no because when the boiler issue was first reported it was said it would cause a 6 month delay
but you know what the funny thing is, there was a time when it was clear cut, 2008 or 2009 and India was sure to get its carrier out and sailing while Liaoning was in port nowhere near complete, who would have thought that China will almost trump India in the carrier procurement even just a few years ago, now its neck and neck, actually start of last year people were saying Liaoning is 5 years behind Vikramaditya, ahem the difference 2 years makes
as far as im concerned i will believe it when i see the carrier commissioned in the Indian Navy, who knows what else will break down this year to delay the carrier even further this is a ongoing saga, the original date for INS Vikramaditya was August 2008!!!!

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adeptitus said:

Look at it this way, it's better for India that Russia is testing the product today and fixing it, than to deliver earlier and have to fix the defects in India. Also, let's not forget that this is a refurbished old ship.

For the Russians, this is a "win" situation for them, as India is paying billions for the carrier and MiG-29K's. Think about it. Your customer paid for the ship and you get to test the various systems installed on it to gain experience. Your customer also paid for the R&D and modernization of the MiG-29K, which you get to test-fly on the carrier to gain valuable experience, remedy defects, and develop improvements for your own Navy's version afterwards.

Sorry to say that this is done at India's expense (~$4.59 billion for carrier + 2 batches of MiG-29K's?), but then going back to my earlier comment, as a customer it's better to have the Russians find the problems and fix them before delivery.

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adeptitus said:

Look at it this way, it's better for India that Russia is testing the product today and fixing it, than to deliver earlier and have to fix the defects in India. Also, let's not forget that this is a refurbished old ship.

For the Russians, this is a "win" situation for them, as India is paying billions for the carrier and MiG-29K's. Think about it. Your customer paid for the ship and you get to test the various systems installed on it to gain experience. Your customer also paid for the R&D and modernization of the MiG-29K, which you get to test-fly on the carrier to gain valuable experience, remedy defects, and develop improvements for your own Navy's version afterwards.

Sorry to say that this is done at India's expense (~$4.59 billion for carrier + 2 batches of MiG-29K's?), but then going back to my earlier comment, as a customer it's better to have the Russians find the problems and fix them before delivery.

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ahadicow said:

The problem with that is aircraft carriers are not cosumer electronics. You're suppose to be able to use aircraft carriers in a situation called war. Now, we are not even talking about using a weapon that you don't know how to build; we are talking about using a weapson that you don't even know how to fix. What if it's damaged, what if there is a break down in one of millions of places that could retard its combat capability? What do you do? send your carrier to Russia for service in the middle of a war?

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Jeff Head said:

The Indians will be able to fix it.

Their engineers have been in Russia as this thing has been refurbished to their specs, and they have shipyards capable of doing it.

The have had numerous refurbs on the older Viraat and Vikrant, and they are building their own new 40,000 ton Vikrant now.

So, once they have the Virkam, they will be able to maintain it, and I am sure the contract has the Russians assisting down in India in that regard for a number of years as well probably.

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