Posted on 03/15/2013 3:48:48 AM PDT by Smartisan
The Defence Secretary was in Scotland today to watch an enormous bridge section fitted to the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier.
During a visit to Rosyth shipyard, Mr Hammond oversaw the 700-tonne section being lifted into place on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Nearly two thirds of the ship has now been built and the structure is due to be completed by the end of this year. The carrier is then expected to leave the dockyard in 2014 before beginning sea trials with the Royal Navy.
The forward island, fitted today, houses the bridge where the captain and navigation crew will operate. The enormous steel section was built in Portsmouth and transported by barge to Fife, where the carriers are being assembled. Both HMS Queen Elizabeth and her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, will have 2 island sections which will provide independent control of navigation and air traffic control operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at gov.uk ...
Twin screws, no angled flight deck and a ski jump TO ramp. Second rate......
Only problem I see is that it’s built to accept the F-35 Lightning II.
Very troubled program.
I guess they could go back to the Harrier if the F-35 never works out.
Britain needs that carrier sooner rather than later. Possible Falklands defense and all.
Having conned a carrier I’d sure prefer that island further aft to assist in getting a better feel for clearances - but I don’t mind having the airboss more than a deck away - sometimes they forget who the OOD is in the watch rankings....same can be said for the CHENG during engineering drills of course... :)
Why don’t we sell them one of ours? Or Leans lease it to the Royal Navy. We have a few old carriers we could give them—(Heck we give F-16s to Egypt). Something they can use until they get there new ones on line?
We still have HMS Illustrious.
Nice break down of the decks, thanks for that. Having issues getting an up-to date image, which would do more justice than a bunch of pointless words from the article.
Heh, nice input. The designers point to some apparently good reasons for the split between ship running and flight deck ops.
Anyone got any other examples of double-tower carriers, or any LPH’s etc? Will the QE and PoW be the only ones of their kind made, or what?
Those old American carriers are very crew intensive. These new ones are designed to be as automated as possible to save money on the size of the crew.
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