Reducing the crew is one thing but making a ship built in the 50s with a crew of approaching 500 anywhere near par by the late 70s/80s is a job and a half although it’s going to take 3-4 years refit per ship to do all of that after which they’re effectively new ships

And what troubles me is that things high on alot of lists here such as T82 and County class were big old ships that cost alot in operating costs and building a much more impressive fleet could be constructed on the same money… Even upgrading the Leanders wasn’t cheap, the cost of upgrading to sea wolf was comparable to that of an entirely new frigate

The upgrades were significantly more expensive than the initial build the build price was from 4.5 mil 6.75 million. Obviously im not counting inflation with the upgrades which makes it look worse but the cheapest upgrade was the Ikria conversion was 7 mil and the most expensive was the last sea wolf conversion was 79 mil (an estimate).

New builds just make so much more sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leander_class_frigate#Construction_Programme

Well that would be problematic as to safely take off they would have to do it from the back of the ship and run the whole deck before hitting the Ski Jump. Any crewmen wouldn’t be able to operate behind the F35 prior to takeoff and further F35 would have to wait to one side.

Not having JBD would seriously hinder deck operations so it would be a rather foolish cost saving to omit them.

I could sworn that their was a contract for them somewhere along with the lifts also by Mctaggert scott

number 1 looks like one of the Lighters the Royal Logistical corps uses

A good sight to see!

I hope pictures like this silence the unnamed pundits who like to release statements stating the carriers should be cancelled or are under threat.

I noticed recently a couple of statements released to the press from these unnamed sources. The first one was about how the increadibly cheap to operate (just £3million a year – and peanuts in the grand scheme of things) Battle of Britain Memorial flight was under threat for financial reasons and then the next day a statement from a nobody on the inside that the new carriers were hyper expensive to buy in the modern world of counter insurgency in A-Stan and were under threat/should be cancelled. Then within days you get the head of the army stating that money should be spent on building up the Army for counter insurgency in A-Stan. (Considering that the target is to be out of A-stan by 2015 I wonder about that…)….Conveniant timing methinks!

looking at the image realy places it to scale as a it looks like most of a T-45 is in the background you can realy see what huge ship its going to be when completed.

Has anyone got any progress on CVF to report?

I have been reading about CVN USS Gerald Ford and it has a new reactor to provide the extra power needed to power the EMALS. The Nimitz class cannot be refitted with EMALS as the cannot generate enough power for them. This got me thinking about CVF and whether it has enough spare power production capacity to power to EMALS and modern arrestor gear. (i don’t know if arrestor gear uses electricity) The CVF design has the upgrade potential built into it for catapults and arrestor gear but would it require some kind of extra power generation turbine or does the current units have enough spare capacity? Maybe the design has been built for steam catapults only i don’t know. I don’t know how much power the current EMALS require but seeing as Nimitz class can’t use them i guess it’s alot. Maybe in the future EMALS will be developed to require less electricity to operate?
Has the French design of CVF been built to be able to use EMALS? I thought it was going to be built with pretty much the same engines as CVF and operate steam catapults.

This got me thinking about the arrestor gear and the forces that must be put through it when an aircraft hooks on. Wouldn’t be fantastic if the energy absorbed from an aircraft landing could be turned into electricity and stored and be enough to power an EMAL for take off. Probably not possible but i think that if you could harness the energy of the arrested landing and turn it into electricity it would be a substantial amount. While looking into the arrestor gear on USS Gerald Ford CVN-78 it is new and will operate by using electromagnets to stop the aircraft instead of the current hydraulic system. The Advanced Arrestor Gear (AAG) seems like it would be easier to generate electrical power from it. In defence it often feels as if Britian its technological ability and numbers of ships slip through its fingers. Dr StrangeLove the former head of MI6 was on the radio saying how the current government has really stretched the UK in defence matter like budget etc. I’m finally glad someone is standing up for defence.

Stabilizers were delivered to Roysth.
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9FFB2F4E-116E-44ED-914D-A1A35C56FAF6/0/desiderIss19forWeb.pdf

In regards to the huge electrical loads imposed by EMALS it would be possible to switch out the MT-30 and replace them with GT with more powerful versions. One of the Joys of IEP is that more possible than previous designs

Ah you misunderstand me, I visualise a smaller Carvour in looks not capability!

In many ways Carvour is the 40,000tonish STOVL only option that Thales and BAE Systems had to submit along with CATOBAR during the bidding process. What is forgotten with all the hybrid talk is all the MOD did was select the CATOBAR design without the catapult and arrester gear.

I forgot we could have been getting big Cavours rather than the QE I think its time to dig up the old CVF drawing and think how lucky the RN’s been in getting something so large. The RN did a good job convincing the MOD and the treasury to go from a hull plugged Invincible to something that at the end of its life will weigh more than a Forestall (it also shares the same beam)

It would be unreasonable to being expecting drafts of the New LPH’s wouldn’t it :diablo:

In another note the stabilizers arrived this month to Roysth it was in this Months Desider

It’s not for the want of a spare flat top, the best reason is for the want of 4 aviation capable vessels (RFA Argus really does not count)

just hypothesising but a 30,000T LPH would likely measure up at around 240m, have a crew of just over 200 and an airgroup of ~350; EMF on such a vessel could easily be around 1,200

sort of Canberra class specs then sans Dock as we have plenty of those. could a Hull plug Ocean achieve those specs

Hopefully they build two. That gives a “spare” carrier and a “spare” LPH.

And after thinking about it, I’d hope its an LPH rather then an LHD. Probably around 30,000t or so so that it can hold a full battalion group plus possibly a brigade command element.

a BPE with a plated up dock would do nicely. problem is how cheap can you fit it Artisan and Phalanx. SEA RAM, and 30mm Cannons and Artisan.

Or a lengthen Ocean, shame nobody seems to be making an LPH.