UK Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

I could not find a thread dedicated to the F16 (nor the SU27 when I looked last time, The search seems ineffective for 3-4 letter words)
Anyways I'll post it here since it happened in the UK; please move to appropriate thread, if there is a better one. I just could not find it sorry.

An F16 makes a real low pass while coming in for a landing over spectators at an airshow

[video=youtube_share;WGNoupIF5SU]http://youtu.be/WGNoupIF5SU[/video]

A Trafalgar class in the UK waters

Another great view of the Queen Elizabeth nxt to the HMS Illustrious (courtesy of Asif):

Jeff Head said:

Another great view of the Queen Elizabeth nxt to the HMS Illustrious (courtesy of Asif):

...

Click to expand...

wait, why does the QE have two islands?? (while seeing this picture I've realized the two superstructures aren't connected ... or they are??)

Jura said:

wait, why does the QE have two islands?? (while seeing this picture I've realized the two superstructures aren't connected ... or they are??)

Click to expand...

okay they are not. The two islands perform different functions. I like to think of it like this. The forward island is the ships the rear islands is the carriers.the forward island is for navigation and defense operations. The rear island is for flight control landing and take off ops. Everything ship related to the front everything flight related to the rear. Hence The front is the ships the back is the carriers.

Curious to know if the trade off in deck space is worth having the two islands, would be interesting to read the study.

-Greg

TerraN_EmpirE said:

okay they are not. The two islands perform different functions. I like to think of it like this. The forward island is the ships the rear islands is the carriers.the forward island is for navigation and defense operations. The rear island is for flight control landing and take off ops. Everything ship related to the front everything flight related to the rear. Hence The front is the ships the back is the carriers.

Click to expand...

oops, I've always thought that "the Officer in Charge of Flying has to be near the Commanding Officer of the Carrier" I mean that they work (sit or stand) together so that they both know what's exactly going on ... but now I realized I only had seen this in some movie LOL It doesn't work that way?

Carriers are complex. Normally commanded by a Full Admiral. His duties are to over see operations of the entire task force. He has overall command of Operations. Under him is the Air group and The naval forces. The Ship has it's operations navigation and maintenance normally a full Captain. The Air group has a it's staff and operations also commanded by a Full captain. but the Air group is not always on Ship. Well the Crew is always onboard.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Carriers are complex. Normally commanded by a Full Admiral. His duties are to over see operations of the entire task force. He has overall command of Operations. Under him is the Air group and The naval forces. The Ship has it's operations navigation and maintenance normally a full Captain. The Air group has a it's staff and operations also commanded by a Full captain. but the Air group is not always on Ship. Well the Crew is always onboard.

Click to expand...

I wrongly thought those Commanders should be in the same room ... in the future, they won't even be on the ship, though

EDIT
just found at
"Advantages of the two island configuration are increased flight deck area, reduced air turbulence over the flight deck and increased flexibility of space allocation in the lower decks. The flight control centre in the aft island is in the optimum position for control of the critical aircraft approach and deck landings."

Jura said:

wait, why does the QE have two islands?? (while seeing this picture I've realized the two superstructures aren't connected ... or they are??)

Click to expand...

As I mentioned on the Aircraft Carriers II thread, the two islands perform two different functions. The forward island is primarily for navigation and carrier operations, while the aft island is more for flight operations, particularly landing.

But unless I am mistaken, they are also redundant. They can assume the operations of the other in a crisis...for example an ASM taking out one of the islands.

This is expensive, but it is also a good move if you can afford it, and if you design them such that they do not add significantly to the radar image of the carrier.

I believe the UK has invested in doing just that.