An additional $1.2B…?!!!

Probably best to cut their losses and invest that money in a superior platform.

I believe the USN will be decommissioning a carrier in the not too distant future if the IN is interested in making an offer, of course, some “minor” alterations and refurbishment will need to be made prior to transfer and service induction. 😀

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/63.htm

if the Goshkov saga couldn’t get any worse it Just has:eek: isn’t he extra 1.2Billion put the Gorshkov squarely into CVF price territory

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php?t-35867.html heres something for the people who joined recently 2004 and the deal has been singed look at the signes then even an Indian admarial had doubts

Whcih makes me wonder why they bothered with all those army formations in Eastern Europe, or was it only Britain that was going to nuked?

As to Afghanistan, not sure the significance. Unless i missed something, they didn’t use them there?

Which is back to the narrow mindedness of the politicians, but I see your point about the importance of the deterant role in that context.

Indeed, it has – and will have – great potential, IF it is developed properly and maintained. There are potentially too many high-value assets (amphib, CV) without the adequate support, or too few platforms to provide the scope and response (TLAM carrying SSN).

the USSR response would be two fold a massive nuke attack while simultaneously flooding the Fulda Gap with the tank armies which meant that the war wouldn’t have lasted for long enough for rationing and made Nuke delivery very important. Their would have been i high possibility of Chemical strikes as well

Unhappy with Dhruv, Navy looks overseas

BANGALORE: The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s inability to meet revised Naval Staff Qualitative Requirements on the indigenously Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv has made the Navy look overseas. It seeks to acquire a utility helicopter that will perform anti-submarine warfare and communication roles.

The Navy’s decision to send a request for information (RFI) to leading manufacturers, including Bell, Boeing and Eurocopter, has upset HAL officials, who say they have worked overtime to accommodate its specific requirements on this multirole, multicustomer helicopter.

The Navy, which has eight Dhruvs in its inventory, indicated that it was considering procuring around 60 of them. But, according to HAL sources, the Navy has stalled on signing a contract.

The helicopter to be chosen for the Navy’s surface fleet, including the Godavari class of frigates, will replace some of the Sea Kings, HAL-built Chetaks and Dhruvs, and possibly even the Russian Kamov-25s. The HAL has received the RFI, which, however, does not specify the number of helicopters or the weight class.

The Navy has been unhappy with fleet serviceability of the Dhruv and even complained to the Defence Ministry. Though the HAL has taken steps, including setting up a dedicated maintenance, repair and overhaul facility for helicopters, and brought down the line replacement unit failure rate of the ALH fleet during the first seven months of 2007 to 5.5 per 100 hours of flying, the latest irritant is over the hingeless main rotor’s foldable blades.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/04/stories/2007110456261200.htm

A109 power’s? as a replacement

very impressive drawing. its a fasinating desgin the MRD10000 being able to take 155mm arty is intersting as well as lots of helos and floodable deck. im wondering why its got a lower heil deck as well as the 4 spot flat deck.
Just thinking that that should be all on one deck

This must be wrong. I’m pretty sure Romania wanys to buy 48 fighters. Or have they changed their mind?

could be 24 fighters then an option for another 24

Royal Navy to launch remote controlled next-gen ship

THIS is the shape of war to come — a supership to launch unmanned jets, submarines, tanks and boats by remote control.
By 2020 a new generation fleet of Royal Navy ships will replace tens of thousands of troops on the battlefield.
The Sun has been given exclusive blueprint images of this first prototype.
Dubbed the UXV Combatant — and nicknamed Mothership — the concept has been drawn up by UK arms giant BAE Systems.
It could be in service in 13 years — replacing the current fleet of Type 22 frigates.
The 8,000-ton Mothership is a cross between an aircraft carrier and the Navy’s newest Type 45 destroyer.
Its sleek, stealth design means it only shows up on radar as the size of a small fishing boat. Main weapons systems will be concealed, including the 75-mile range, 155mm gun with precision-guided shells.
Each Mothership could carry up to 24 unmanned vehicles for different combat scenarios.
A handful of the ships could execute a full invasion. Currently, it takes around 20 people to crew and maintain one helicopter.
An unmanned version could be run by five. Manned surface patrol boats need 50 sailors to manage. The remote control prototypes need just ten.
BAE Systems’ ship engineering chief Charles Nisbet said: “There is still a way to go but we have been working across industry and closely with the MoD on the concept, and this is a considered response to their request for designs.”
A senior Navy officer said: “The UXV fits very closely with our thinking. “The next generation of surface ships has to be able to do just about everything.”

£4bn carriers for navy may mean cuts in fleet

The first of the 65,000-tonne carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is expected to go into service in 2012, and the second, HMS Prince of Wales, in 2015.
Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the first sea lord, said the decision to build them meant that Britain remained “big boys in the navy league“. 😮

The Destruction of the British Navy

One of Europe’s biggest mistakes ever made is that all Western European countries have destroyed their military after the second world war. Before World War II, European countries had the most powerful armies in the world; we ruled the world, Brittania ruled the waves. No matter what happened, and where it happened, European powers were able to intervene.

Slowly but surely, more and more Europeans seem to realize this; this is especially the case is Great Britain

It’s easy to make fun of the Brits, of course, but fact of the matter is that I don’t find this funny at all. Britain once had the most powerful Navy in the world. Labor’s goal seems to have always been to bring it to utter destruction; it has almost succeeded in doing so, if it goes ahead and implements these plans it will succeed. This will not only weaken Britain, it will weaken the West as a whole and the EU. Forget about playing an important role in the world, forget about defending ourselves against possible future attacks, forget about it all. Europe will be handicapped and useless. All we’ll be able to do is to live in our Kantian paradise, hoping everyone will just let us be and live in peace. For if they do not, we can’t do anything about it.

please please don’t quote Warships IFR:mad: and uniformed blogs

Absolutely, except for one quibble (later). It was completely deliberate. The RN had three platforms capable of operating Harriers, & keenly felt the need of a ship like Ocean, capable of transporting troops & supporting a heliborne assault. She was designed to do all the things well that the Invincibles were being pressed to do but weren’t very good at, & she was cheap. Very cheap. Why spend a lot of money for a capability you already have plenty of, & in the process get less of a capability you need more of? I disagree with some Admiralty decisions, but not that one.

The quibble is that they didn’t know the F-35B was coming along. Ocean was put out to tender in 1992, ordered in 1993. JSF was a blue-sky technology development programme at the time, called JAST. There was no JSF, let alone F-35B. Most such programmes fall by the wayside, & the UK wasn’t involved in it.

The RN is very unlikely to modify Ocean. As I keep saying, why spend money to reduce a capability you’re short of? Also, by the time F-35B enters service in the RN, she’ll be almost 20 years old. The major rebuild to make her an aircraft carrier would take a useful ship out of service for a lot longer than a normal refit, cost a lot more than could possibly be justified for her remaining life, & end up turning a good, useful amphibious ship into a very poor aircraft carrier. I’d be in favour of reviving the Byng treatment for any admiral advocating it, pour encourager les autres. 😀 It’d be my taxes.

Principe de Asturias is slightly smaller than Ocean, but her flight deck is longer, unobstructed (take a look at some pictures of Ocean – she has obstacles in the bow), she has a 12° ski-jump, & she’s several knots faster (means she can generate more wind over the deck). She can operate F-35B at useful weights, certainly, but what I’ve read suggests not maximum take-off weight, except perhaps when steaming into a decent headwind. But at least her main lift should (just) be able handle a fully loaded F-35B.

Because of deck layout, an F-35 would have to take off from Ocean unarmed & light on fuel, just as Harriers have to. She can fulfill the potentially useful auxiliary roles of STOVL transport, or floating extra hangar for a carrier. She can not function as a carrier, for even one fighter. Her lifts can only lift a lightly loaded F-35B up to the deck.

The RN may well buy a bigger LPH in future (but probably not an LHA), but I expect it to emulate the successful model of Ocean, & not spend money on unwanted capacity.

I like the idea of a converted Cavor as a follow on design