Posted on 02/11/2008 1:54:12 PM PST by Rikstir
The start of an investment project to modify the dockyard at Rosyth, in preparation for the assembly of the two Royal Navy super carriers was witnessed today, 11 February 2008, by Defence Secretary Des Browne.
The two 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, are to be constructed in sections in shipyards at Portsmouth and Barrow-in-Furness, Glasgow, with final assembly at Babcock's Rosyth in Scotland.
Des Browne witnessed the signing of a £35m contract today by Babcock Engineering Services with Glasgow-based subcontractors Edmund Nuttall Limited to modify the docks in order to accommodate the building of the carriers and widen its direct entrance.
(Excerpt) Read more at mod.uk ...
It is said that the QE class is will embark as many combat aircraft as did Operation Granby in 1991. And as been noted by others here, composite structures will reduce the weight of the vessel to what it is proposed to be. If it were built 20+ years back the vessel would probably weigh 1,000,000 tonnes!
Oh, absolutely - these might not be as big as the Reagan, but they are going to pack a lot of punch onboard. I don't think, outside the US, anyone is even remotely close to anything like these. Russian and Chinese carriers, including the ones they have in planning stages, are much less impressive.
Its just galling that of the fleet of 3 we are to build, we are selling one of them to the Frogs!
Whoring out our tech and expertise now it seems...
They invented the angled deck. They used it until the retirement of HMS Ark Royal in 1978.
The Ark Royal carried the following:
12 Phantom FG MK.1s
14 Buccaneer S MK.2s
4 Gannet AEW Mk.3s
6 Sea King HAS Mk.1s
2 Wessex HU Mk.5s
1 Gannet COD MK.4
Not entirely fair in that profile view. Invincible is shown above water only, while the CVF has the entire hull exposed. Makes the CVF look bigger because they’re not compared the same way.
Is the name referring to the present Sovereign or to the one who faced the Spanish Armada?
Defense budgets percent of GDP (2001):
United States is 3.04 percent;
Britain, 2.50 percent;
Russia, 2.1 percent;
France, 1.96 percent;
Germany, 1.10 percent.
Today the US number is well over 4%.
Can’t say where the others stand today, but would guess not much different. US still carries the biggest load.
Besides, Russia and China will always be 350 years or so behind the British Navy in tradition, reputation and skill.
yeah i saw that after the fact. neat little cut and paste job...
Good question. I cant give you a definitive answer, but I reckon its for our current monarch.
France has the 38,000t nuclear powered aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, which I believe is now fully operational.
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/gaulle/
-Traveler
Much smaller and much lighter. I think the Ronald Reagan is about Eighty Six thousand tons.
The present. The tradition is that the leap ship of the first new capital class a sovereigns reign carries the name of the sovereign
Victoria got two
King Edvard VII 1904 src=http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/images/hmskingedwardviisym43.jpg>
King George V 1912
The next king to get a ship would have been Edward VIII but the name came at the same time as the Abdication crisis - so - couldn't give it to him, or his eventual sucessor George VI, who wasn't annouced yet - George V got a repeat
(although HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Duke of York of the same class were named ref to Edward VIII and George VI respectively)
Elizabeth II should have got her ship in the 60s But a Labour government made withe the defence cuts
However Good Queen Bess of the Armada also got a ship back in WWI
see above
great post pal. good info, good pics. cheers
Indeed the CdeG is excellent. The fact that it is nuclear powered however wont make it as technologically advanced as the QE Class. They will be a generation apart. Which is why the French are paying us to make one for their own fleet.
No disrespect to the CdeG, great looking ship. If someone can post a pic of it here, si vous plait?
Ping..
Incorrect. Angled decks were being used by the Royal Navy when Phantoms, Sea Vixens and Buccaneers were the aircraft of choice.
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