Posted on 11/29/2011 12:12:03 PM PST by george76
The aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy will be less useful, take longer to finish, and likely cost more than claimed, a parliamentary watchdog warns.
The first, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will be mothballed immediately it is launched in 2016, according to the existing plan. However, the second, HMS Prince of Wales, is not now expected to be fully operational until 2031. Moreover, it will only be able to stay at sea for up to 200 days a year, significantly fewer than envisaged, says the Commons public accounts committee.
The MPs' report, out on Tuesday, makes clear the quick decision to adapt the carriers to fly US-made Joint Strike Fighters, taking off by catapult and landing by arrester wires, will increase the planes' cost as well as that of the carriers, but by how much will not be known until December 2012.
The cost of the US JSFs – or F35s as they are now called – is spiralling, and the Ministry of Defence has already cut substantially the number it plans to buy; development is also threatened by pressures on the American defence budget.
The catapult/arrester arrangement enables British aircraft to land on French carriers, and vice versa – increasing co-operation; the UK version also has longer range and carries heavier weapons.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
A functioning aircraft carrier certainly would be handy in the case of some rogue nation seizing your embassy, but not that it would ever happen nowadays.... - ummm, err, yeah.
LOL, some must learn lessons the hard way.
Agreed. The chances of THAT happening are almost as remote as some quack doctor being blamed for Michael Jackson’s suicide...
One wonders what the value of writing down history is, if almost everyone is going to ignore the lessons it provides.
Sadly, we’re only a step behind Great Britain. The next couple of years are going to be extremely painful to those of us who knew precisely what they will usher in.
One wonders what the value of writing down history is, if almost everyone is going to ignore the lessons it provides.
Sadly, we’re only a step behind Great Britain. The next couple of years are going to be extremely painful to those of us who know precisely what they will usher in.
so you build an aircraft carrier ,just to mothball it ,sounds like a smart move ,government in action
Perhaps they should have simply paid the U.S. to build one for them.
They seem to forget that when Argentina took the Falklands, the Royal Navy was forced to use cargo container ships as aircraft carriers for their Harrier jets.
I wonder if the “watch-dogs” who advised Queen Elizabeth I warned her that the fireships that initiated the destruction of the Spanish Armada at Gravelines would be too costly to build since they could only be used once....
I wonder if the “watch-dogs” who advised Queen Elizabeth I warned her that the fireships that initiated the destruction of the Spanish Armada at Gravelines would be too costly to build since they could only be used once....
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Well, HMS Illustrious is still in service, but it seems she no longer embarks Harriers. Dunno what the big idea is, but the boffins at MOD UK, those cheerful civil servants, seem to be on an all stops pulled out mission to destroy the UK military.
Twenty years before a catapult-equipped carrier is ready will translate into a fifteen year delay in purchasing F-35Cs.
“They seem to forget that when Argentina took the Falklands, the Royal Navy was forced to use cargo container ships as aircraft carriers for their Harrier jets.”
one of the concepts of new naval design is building a base ship and being able to configure it for various missions by adding modules, tio include crew quarter modules. take a supertanker, seriously armor up the superstructure (most tanker war hits were there because it presents the largest cross-section), and stock it with cruise missles, asw modules w/ helos, and air defense. these things would run over a mine and not feel it. there should be enough anchored off singapore that could be bought cheap.
I don't believe that was the case. The Atlantic Conveyor carried some Harriers to the Falklands but was not used an operational platform.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Conveyor
Lots of cargo ship carried stuff to the S Atlantic and were used for helicopter operations though -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_naval_forces_in_the_Falklands_War
It's all a moot point now since the UK has scrapped it's Harriers and has even laid off most of the Harrier pilots.
‘Fraid not.
or at least put a catapult on there and buy some F-18 Super Hornets till the F-35’s are ready. We might even have some A-6 Intruders that they could buy cheap. Arthur C Clarke’s short story Superiority should be required reading at War College.
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