Posted on 11/08/2013 8:23:58 AM PST by Smartisan
The new ships will be built by BAE Systems at their shipyards on the Clyde in a deal that will sustain jobs in the UK’s warship-building industry, and will play a key role in counter-terrorism, counter-piracy and anti-smuggling operations.
The agreement with BAE Systems provides work for the company between the completion of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers and the Type 26 Global Combat Ship, securing the vital skills needed to build the UK’s future warships.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond is also announcing today that more than £100 million will be invested in Her Majesty’s (HM) Naval Base Portsmouth, which will be home to both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. The money will expand the dockyard to ensure it is ready for the arrival of the Royal Navy’s biggest ever warships as well as for the Type 45 destroyers which are based in Portsmouth.
(Excerpt) Read more at gov.uk ...
When I was in the Navy, the Bosenmate would never allow a rusted anchor like these have - ever even if he put a man over the side every day and paint it.
The world of sea warfare has changed dramatically in the past 30 years. There are now basically three types of naval craft: submarines; ships big enough to survive torpedoes/missiles; and those that will be destroyed in the first several minutes of a war. This will be proven in the next real skirmish. With the end of manned tactical aircraft on the horizon, sea war will become an affair between submarines and UCAVs. There are no longer any carrier-based fixed-wing ASW aircraft; the P-3 is on the way out; and the P-8 idea of ASW from 20,000 feet is nonsense. Once the real shooting begins, our surface Navy will be eliminated in several days.
Aww, what, you don’t like what you’re reading? Need a cuddle?
I have a sneaking suspicion that the paint chipping and painting is done by civilian contractors.
Not that I loved doing those tasks when I was in (cleaning tobacco spit juice out of pad-eyes, etc) but there was something undeniably military about being forced to do jobs as a young man you might never, ever have done as a civilian, and that isn’t always a bad thing.
When you have had your arm up to the elbow in a broken urinal that had black, longstanding, fermenting urine in it, you understand there are a lot of formerly unpalatable jobs that simply aren’t that bad...it widens your horizons a little bit...:)
Definitely a solid point there. There has been some argument in the UK (mostly from the military threads) that the costs of the new carriers (£6bn and rising) could have been put to much better use getting another round half dozen of the Astute SSN’s.
Navies will become 2-tier; a coast guard for patrolling and a different war-fighting capability. I think both the US and UK might just have missed a trick in changing forever the traditional (past 70 years or so) makeup of a fleets into a sub-surface and drone/UAV carriers.
IF you think the US navy would last ‘several days’, I can safely say the only useful UK navy asset in a shooting war would be the Astute’s. Everything else is basically a target.
I greatly admire the Royal Navy, men and ships hearts of oak all. But their numbers are sadly diminished. Pity. They would be hard pressed to pull off a Falklands level Op today.
All nations would be hard pushed to do a D-Day again, at current capacities.
Fact is, we don’t need to. Mount Pleasant garrison, tasked OPV to SA, and a constant SSN presence in SA means we aren’t at risk of invasion.
Were we to get invaded, one would hope that the NATO clause might still hold tight. Unless it all our friends are fair weather only...
...Which is possible.
Where did they put the huge roll of cod-fish drag netting, before the picture was taken?
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