But the Indians are known to pinch the pennies until they scream, take a peek at the Viraat (beast’s been there for almost half a century now). Also, if the Brits part with it at throwaway prices, it’ll be worth it just to relieve the Viraat for the next decade or so.
And you can bet a pound to a penny that as old as Invincible is and techinally in reserve, she is a thousand days plus closer to being availble for active service than the Viraat at this time, and may well be in better condition :rolleyes:
I think I will sit on the sidelines and keep my powder dry; just in case around about 2015 the RN are forced to announce a similar delay to the CVF’s, due their “recent inexperience of building large warships and various issues of integration of its complex systems” ………….:diablo: I don’t think we could quite live that one down 😉 🙁
What are they getting in the announcements made by Washington in the last week or so ?
Surely there was an element of religious & cultural sensitivity here that the BBC report fails to mention ? In most conservative Islamic countries a woman will only ever travel in close company with a man that they know or preferably with a male family member. BA would certainly have been aware of this.
If money was not an issue, I would go and see NG and ask them to dust of the YF-23 and to hand build 2 or 3 more (for that is all that would be needed) with various mods to optimise them for high altitude photo-recon. Fast, high altitude, very stealthy and most importantly of all, it looked the part :diablo: 😉
There is a small piece in todays Times (paper edition) that suggests that the UK government plans for a new long range Royal/Ministerial transport are to be combined with the FSTA project and so there may be one of the new A330 tankers fitted out accordingly. You can depend that they will convert one of the current 14 proposed airframes rather than procure an extra one as part of the Air Tanker deal :rolleyes:
Best of it is, I seem to recall that it was suggested on here first that that might be the best thing for them to do anyway ………….:D
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=67795&highlight=MRTT
Ed may well have a point, ending the US investigation could be one of the Saudi’s goals and offering a large carrot to uncle sam may be part of it
Interesting, Thanks for posting them 😎
Swerve, Re the Rosyth Dock. Here is one of the current carriers going into dry dock and I think it will answer your question. Yes, work will be needed to be done to make it fit 😮
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/invincible/invincible13.html
I mentioned Google earth earlier, and I had a look. The current satellite image for the dockyard shows one of the carriers in there having a major refit (with the flight deck tented over) and it is a very tight fit as the photo above suggests, even the dock immediately to the right of that one while being longer will not be wide enough. I haven’t been able to post a link to the satellite piccy as I wasn’t able to work out how to do it.
There was a very quiet announcement in Parliament yesterday that it seems only Reuters picked up on as I haven’t seen it elsewhere . A sixth C-17 is to be ordered for the RAF. 😎
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2692873920070726
The MOD have certainly spent some money in the last couple of weeks 😉
Swerve, I reckon they have thought of the headroom issue, or shall we say they better have :diablo:
Google earth might answer the dry dock question, particularly if there is something of know length in the photo such as a car
Here is the details. I haven’t read them yet, but we have plenty of time for debate 😀
To be built in Clyde, Barrow, Rosyth and Portsmouth. More to follow………
Agree, it seems a step backwards now that Turbines seem to be so reliable and relatively economicial to run. I guess they must be reckoning on some economies of scale with the cost of the Nuclear Carriers
I have just checked the parliamentary website and a ‘statement’ about the aircraft carriers is due in a few minutes. Heres hoping………………