Sorry, I assumed it was a “Boomer”.

FYI British Bombers (we don’t call them Boomers, as in english that has a rude conotation) all have ‘V’ names, Vanguard, Vigilant, Vengeance and Victorious. Our SSNs have ‘S’ names (out of service now), ‘T’ names (Trafalgar, Turbulent, Tireless, Torbay, Trenchant, Talent, and Triumph), and the new ‘A’ class (Astute, Ambush, Artful, Audacious, Agamemnon, Anson and Ajax). RN SSNs have no nuclear weapons on board.

Re that computer graphic above: How much sense does it make to have an angled deck on a ski-jump carrier? Was wondering the same on the Russian carrier for a long time.

A great deal of sense. The angled deck is for landing on non VL capable aircraft with a tailhook and allows those that miss the wire to ‘Bolt’ over the end of the angled deck and have another go, missing the aircraft parked forward and the Ski Jump. The latter ramp is for launching only.

Yes I can see where you were going, why not fit the arrestor wires axially in line with the ski jump so any Bolting aircraft just takes off again over the ramp?

Bad Idea. The Bolter would get airborne again, probably minus it’s undercarriage. Ski Jump Ramps have maximum entry speeds which are far below the avareage speed of a Bolter, because going up the ramp puts a great deal of stress on the nosewheel in particular. Typical ramp exit speed is only around 80 Knots, whereas landing speed on the angled deck is closer to 130+knots, and if the aircraft Bolts then it is accelerating as well. If it then had to go up the ramp the dynamic stress on the nosewheel would break it, if not the first time then soon after. Aircraft launching by ski jump have to adjust their ramp entry speed depending on how heavily loaded they are for their sortie.

Perhaps this will help put matters into perspective: PAAMS (SAMSON + SYLVER + ASTER30 etc) constitutes 48% of the cost of each T45 DDG. Ergo, if you are advocating purchasing two more systems for the CVFs, then that money effectively buy you another complete T45, which I think we’ll all agree would be a more useful purchase.

My first reaction is a behind the scenes deal between the Marines and the Navy, who want to keep a Marine presence in their Carrier Air Wings at about the same level it is now, so the Marines agree to replace their Hornet sqns on the CVN decks with F-35Cs, and in return the USN drops any objections to the continued development and service entry of the F-35B. The latter model will now only embark on the ‘Gators’ at sea and not the Big Deck Carriers, instantly removing any worries about operating STOVL aircraft from CATOBAR ships (already proved to be straightforward back in 77 when a Marine Harrier sqn embarked on the FDR…).;)

Type 42 Destroyer!;):D

Didn’t Maggie also ask about Ark Royal and her airgroup of Phantoms and Bucs as well!

She did indeed! Admiral Leach informed her he would be dispatching Hermes and Invincible with their Sea Harriers, and she (in)famously replied “And of course you’ll be sending the Ark Royal with her Phantoms and Buccaneers?”:eek:

This illustrates the point we are making; Politicians are intrinsically stupid and invariably make the wrong choices. Every once in a while one will make the right decision, but this is purely a matter of random chance and accidents do happen.

Anixtu: WUASC! Your faith in politicians is your weakness! Assume the worst about them and you will never know disappointment!;)

True but talking about the Greek navy it would be cool if they used their Zubr class LCAC!

It would also be cool if they brought HS Georgios Averof and HS Olympias out of retirement to support the operations!:D Oh there goes my wild imagination again….

Fair enough. Completely agree about the T22s, Long had a soft spot for them. I used to think (in the pre T45 era) that it would be kinda cool to re designate the T22B3s as command Cruisers, as that was how they operated anyway. Simply change the pennant flag superior to C and voila, four cruisers back in the RN! Size wise it could be justified, as they were bigger than the T42 Destroyers, and the T23 Frigates. Not a great deal I grant you, but enough! I think the curent shower in westminster are going to find the U-turn is their most frequent course of action in the next few years. Their descisions so far have been wrong on so many levels, and they will find they have no choice but to back flip an many things;)