Posted on 10/01/2006 9:51:48 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Updated Ark Royal sails back to sea with new muscle
SHÂN ROSS
THE Royal Navy's biggest warship passed under the Forth Bridge and headed out for sea trials yesterday after a comprehensive £25 million refit to transform her into the service's only combined troop and aircraft carrier.
HMS Ark Royal has had an internal refurbishment which will enable her to transport up to 600 Royal Marines to any flashpoint in the world.
The impressive aircraft carrier is now considered "one of a kind" following the £25 million upgrade at Babcock's shipyard in Rosyth, Fife.
The upgrade includes a third mast - a state-of-the-art satellite and radio communications system which allows the ship to track every airport and aircraft landing in every airport in western Europe.
Living accommodation has also been altered to provide extra bunks for a battalion of 600 marines.
The ship, the fifth to bear the name, has played key roles in conflicts for more than 400 years distinguishing itself in many conflicts including that against the Spanish Armada, the Second World War, and most recently the Gulf.
Naval experts said last night the transporting of Marines was part of the whole "power projection ashore" strategy necessary to move troops quickly ashore while giving them air and sea cover, which is now the mainstay of modern warfare.
Captain Mike Mansergh said: "It is one of a kind, the only ship in the service which can carry out the dual roles of troop and aircraft carrier.
"It now represents a highly mobile and formidable potential strike force with air cover, one of the most flexible fighting ships in the world."
Following her current trials in the North Sea she will rejoin the Royal Navy fleet at Portsmouth before Christmas.
Naval experts said the refit reflects changing tactics in which warfare requires the swift movement of troops from sea to land by helicopter.
Nick Brown, editor of Jane's Navy International, said: "The Ark Royal's upgrade reflects the changing world scene and the way the vast majority of the world's main navies are being transformed."
The Ark Royal is the biggest ship built for the Royal Navy since the Second World War and incorporates many improvements from her earlier sister ships, Illustrious and Invincible.
Its crew stands at 600 but can double that number when at full readiness with the addition of the Royal Marines and flight crew.
The ship played a pivotal role during the amphibious assault by Royal Marines on the Al-Faw Peninsula during the 2003 Iraq war. It also played a key role in the Balkans conflict in the early 1990s, mainly based in the Adriatic. It has also seen action in Afghanistan.
After its sea trials the aircraft carrier will return to her home port of Portsmouth.
Firepower from one Elizabethan age to the next
LAUNCHED in 1985, the Ark Royal carries 24 aircraft, a potent combination of the latest Harrier jump jets and Sea King, Merlin and Chinook helicopters.
She is gas turbine-powered, nearly 690ft (210m) long, weighs 22,000 tonnes and can accommodate 1,200 personnel.
The first Ark Royal was built as Ark Raleigh at Depford on the River Thames in 1587, on the orders of Sir Walter Raleigh.
After a gap of almost 300 years a second Ark Royal was launched in 1914 and served in the Dardanelles Campaign and throughout the First World War.
The third Ark Royal, launched in 1938, saw action in the Second World War and was sunk by a German U-boat in 1941. The fourth ship starred in the 1970s BBC series Sailor before eventually going to the breaker's yard in 1980.
Its not very good to be 'one of a kind'. How about building a few more of those puppies?
Makes it sound like this particular ship has been in service for 400 years.
Some nations have aircraft carriers. The USA has super-carriers. The French Charles De Gaulle Class nuclear carriers displace about 43,000t. India's new Vikramaditya/ Admiral Gorshkov Class will have a similar displacement. The future British CVF Queen Elisabeth Class and related French PA2 Project are expected to displace about 55,000t-65,000t, while the British Invincible Class carriers that participated in the Falklands War weigh in at around 22,000t. Invincible actually compares well to Italy's new Cavour Class (27,000t), and Spain's Principe de Asturias Class (17,000t). The USA's Nimitz Class and CVN-21, in contrast, fall in the 90,000t-105,000t range. Hence the unofficial designation "super-carriers". Just one of these ships packs a more potent air force than many nations.
After the debacle of the french aircraft carrier, De Gaulle, the french and english had been working on a deal where a entirely new aircraft carrier would be designed, they would share the costs of development, and Britian would get 2 and france would get 1.
But the project is now in a deep freeze because the British were going to still be paying a lot more in the design stages, and France at the same time was demanding that the ships be built at French shipyards. Just like with NATO, the US military, and everything else, they expect everyone else to pay for everything while they reap the rewards.
The Brits are pretty tight on cash.They are withdrawing the Sea Harrier airdefence fighter & have mothballed HMS Invincible,if im not mistaken.
France is considering joining with Britain to buy a new carrier of British design. Actually, the French had planned to built a second nuclear powered carrier, but they are having so many problems with the first one that they are quite reluctant about building a second like the troubled "Charles de Gaulle". Britain is building two 50,000 ton conventionally powered carriers, at a cost of $2.5 billion each. Under the proposed plan, France would order a third of this class, and bring down the cost of all three a bit. This project might not come off, because France wants a lot of the work to be done in French shipyards.
The new French nuclear carrier "Charles de Gaulle" has suffered from a seemingly endless string of problems since it was first conceived in 1986. The 40,000 ton ship has cost over four billion dollars so far and is slower than the steam powered carrier it replaced. Flaws in the "de Gaulle" have led it to using the propellers from it predecessor, the "Foch," because the ones built for "de Gaulle" never worked right and the propeller manufacturer went out of business in 1999. Worse, the nuclear reactor installation was done poorly, exposing the engine crew to five times the allowable annual dose of radiation. There were also problems with the design of the deck, making it impossible to operate the E-2 radar aircraft that are essential to defending the ship and controlling offensive operations. Many other key components of the ship did not work correctly, including several key electronic systems. The carrier has been under constant repair and modification. The "de Gaulle" took eleven years to build (1988-99) and was not ready for service until late 2000. It's been downhill ever since. The de Gaulle is undergoing still more repairs and modifications. The government is being sued for exposing crew members to dangerous levels of radiation.
The cause of the problems can be traced to the decision to install nuclear reactors designed for French submarines, instead of spending more money and designing reactors specifically for the carrier. Construction started and stopped several times because to cuts to the defense budget and when construction did resume, there was enormous pressure on the builders to get on with it quickly, and cheaply, before the project was killed. The result was a carrier with a lot of expensive problems.
So the plan is to buy into the new British carrier building program and keep the "de Gaulle" in port and out of trouble as much as possible. The British have a lot more experience building carriers, and if there are any problems with the British designed ship, the French can blame the British.
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/2003127.asp
I'll take a Wasp class LHD. It's bigger, more flexible, and carries more aircraft. Of course it is double the weight of the Ark Royal.
Strategypage is full of holes when talking about foreign militaries & their equipment.The CD-G has resolved several of it's earlier problems & is able to deploy it's E-2 Hawkeyes.The Ship has seen more than one combat deployment,incl in support of OEF in 2001 & exercises with foreign navies.
The proposed PA-2 will have considerable differences with the British ships given that one will be CTOL & the other,V/STOL.
My employer makes marine duty cranes and davits for the Navy and Coast guard.
On the wall in the assembly area is a large poster of a Nimitz class carrier with the caption: "90,000 tons of Diplomacy".
I really love that poster.
Love that poster.
I served on the Kitty Hawk, my brother on the Enterprise.
However big they seem in port, they get tiny on the ocean.
They do pack a wallop tho.
It is almost a certainty that part of her has been. The British Navy has a tradition of taking part of a retired ship and installing it in the new ship of the same name. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that there is some 400 year old woodwork in the wardroom, as well as bits and pieces of every ship that has ever borne the name.
I have that poster, from Newport News shipyard, along with one that is a picture of the USS George Washington with all aircraft on the deck, with the caption, "4 1/2 acres of sovreign US territory, where it's needed, when it's needed."
Its still a wee ship compared to our carriers,and harriers cant do the air superiority mission for fleet defense. Its good for an assault vessel though. Nothing in the same league as our 12 carriers.Nice to see the Brits upgrading things though.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/carriers.htm
Sometimes it is difficult to understand the scope of American military power relative to that of the rest of the world. This graphic illustrates America's aircraft carriers, and those of the rest of the world. Each icon is an accurate depiction of the flight deck of the ship as seen from above, all to a common scale. Each of the middle column of ships is roughly the size of the Empire State Building.
America has twice as many aircraft carriers as the rest of humanity combined, and America's aircraft carriers are substantially larger than almost all the other's aircraft carriers. The Navy likes to call the big Nimitz class carriers "4.5 acres of sovereign and mobile American territory" -- all two dozen American carriers of all classes add up to about 75 acres of deck space. Deckspace is probably a good measure of combat power. The rest of the world's carriers have about 15 acres of deck space, one fifth that of America's.
There is no hard and fast precise definition of an "aircraft carrier" and some smaller aviation related ships are not included here. The Italian San Giorgio class small dock landing ships and Japan's Osumi class Landing Ship Tank (LST) resemble diminuative aircraft carriers, but lack a hangar deck which would provide an enclosed maintenance area. Although Helicopter Destroyers such as Italy's Vittorio Veneto and Japan's Haruna and Shirane have hangers, these hybrid vessels are clearly outside any reasonable definition of an aircraft carrier.
The United Kingdom plans construction of a pair of CVF Queen Elizabeth class CTOL big deck carriers, and France has decided to build a conventionally-powered Second Aircraft Carrier to pair with the Charles de Gaulle. These ships have a displacement of roughly 50,000 tons, equal to American amphibious assault ships.
Negotiations between Russia and India began in 1994 for the sale of the 45,500 tons full load Admiral Gorshkov, and on 20 January 2004 it was announced that India and Russia had signed a $1.6 billion deal finalizing the sale, with delivery expected in 2008. In April 2005 India began construction of the 37,500-ton displacement Air Defense Ship indigenous carrier, with delivery expected by the year 2012.
A number of medium sized amphibious assault ships are currently under construction, including the Italian Luigi Einaudi [NUM], four "13,500 ton" [light] ships in Japan, a pair of Mistral [NTCD] in France, and the Buque de Proyección Estratégica in Spain. In early 2004 the Netherlands expressed interest in acquiring an underway replinishment ship with features similar to those of the Spanish Buque de Proyección Estratégica and the UK's e Ocean. In August 1994 Australia announced plans to evaluate the Mistral [NTCD]and Buque de Proyección Estratégica for possible purchase of a pair of units. These ships all have a displacement of roughly 20,000 tons.
Argentina no longer operates an aircraft carrier, having paid off the 25° de Mayo in January of 1999, at which time she was towed away for scrapping in India by March 2000. Australia no longer operates an aircraft carrier, having decommissioned HMAS Melbourne (ex HMAS Majestic) 30 June 1982. She was sold in February 1985, to China United Shipbuilding Company, and reportedly broken up. But in January 2001, it was reported that China has been using her flight deck for pilot training. Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands also operated carriers in the mid-20th century, but gave it up many decades ago.
Despite a great deal of speculation, there is scant evidence that China is actively working on an aircraft carrier. Altough the Shichang Multi-Role Aviation Ship is one of the largest vessels in the People's Liberarion Army Navy fleet, it would be a bit of a stretch to class this ship as an aircraft carrier.
The Sea-Harrier is still good for most air-defence missions as seen in numerous exercises as well as the Falklands war.
Anyway,these upgraded ships have a more degraded air-defence capability with their Sea-Harriers being offloaded & they will carry only ground attack Gr.9s.
The harrier may be good for carrying anti-ship missiles and ground assualt,but it sucks hard for air to air fleet defense.
Talking about the SeaHarrier,That's not what several NATO/bilateral exercises have shown.It's repeatedly gotten the better of American or French built aircraft,ofcourse excluding the new generation like the SuperHornet or EF-2000.It's Sea-Vixen radar/AMRAAM combo supposedly made it the most potent air-defence fighter in Europe in the 90s.
The Ground attack Harrier variants(the Brit Gr-5/7s or American AV-8B) may fit the description you are talking about.
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