According to the article it will be 280m long. The Reagan is 320m long. The Enterprise is/was 342m.
Is Cameron gonna send it to the Falklands ?
This is great, but I hope that it isn’t the Islamic Republic of Great Britain by the time her service life is through.
Training wheels in the aft bridge?
I think they HAD to build bigger carriers. The ones they have are made for VTOL planes (Harriers) and they retired them. I assumed they’ve learned their lesson and designed catapult and arresting gear into the flight deck for conventional Naval A/C.
Old Brit car and bike humor. Corollary was a joke about why Brits drink warm beer.
Seriously, I bet these ships will be built top notch. Ship building is in their genes. Would love to tour one, but never happen out here on an island.
... is it as big as the mosque in the background?
In this day and age of ever-faster and smarter missile technology, carriers are becoming obsolete. Sure, we can roll one up on a small country without the resources to give us a run for our money, but the Russians and Chinese have developed special missiles which have a high probability of destroying or disabling a carrier. If these missiles are fire in volleys, their probabilities go way up. Sure we have some missile defenses, but you really only have to get lucky once with the hypersonic missiles they are working on that are travelling at speets approaching mach 10 and upwards. A simple, non-explosive warhead travelling at that speed would be like being struck by a comet.
There also is the growing militarization of space, which has the usual players, namely Russia, and to a lesser degree, China. Why each country would not be working on their own version of Rods from God would defy common sense. Imagine even a crowbar moving at several miles per second making impact.
Madness.
(I say that on every UK post)
I think the Brits invented the angle flight deck. Ironic it lacks that...
The next war will start with large missiles and torpedoes hitting these targets.
How’d make it past the Wibbly Wobbly Bridge? ;O)