Well the Jane’s article seems pretty clear on that one?
‘While Prince of Wales – the second of class for which manufacturing activities began in May 2011 – will be configured for CV operations from build, the advanced state of work on Queen Elizabeth has meant that the the retrofit of catapults and arrestor gear would be impractical without major disruption to the build program. Queen Elizabeth will therefor be completed in 2016 to the original STOVL configuration (minus ski-jump) and enter service to prove the platform, provide crew training and achieve rotary wing clearances. Queen Elizabeth will then enter a state of extended readiness around 2019 when Prince of Wales enters service.’
So for a while we will indeed own the worlds largest LPH! :):mad: Question therefor appears to be if no ski-jump, which makes sense, will QE be completed without flight deck extension and angled deck? If so, might make later conversion to ‘Cats n traps’ a lot more costly – and a lot less likely! :confused:
Dont want to disrupt that 6 year building program!
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