Preserved capital ships are rare outside of US anyway, so it’s not just British. And I suspect that the number in US is excessive in long term anyway

i’m not saying that the royal navy should have been as excessive as the USN in preserving 20th century capital ships, but i think we can all agree that it would be pretty damn cool if there were maybe a dreadnought era ship, a WWII battleship, and perhaps HMS victorious preserved as museums around the UK.

The ‘finest hour’ of the RN however is pre-1900 and the wars with the French, Spanish & Dutch when the RN were undeniably pre-eminent in the world. So I think there is might be more emotional attchment to ships from that period than 20th century.

interesting perspective, and one i hadn’t thought of. the USN’s “finest hour” was undoubtedly the pacific theater in WWII.

still though, the royal navy built some damn impressive capital ships in the 20th century, it’s a shame they couldn’t have saved a small number of them.

^ indeed. the invincibles were fine looking ships in their prime. it’s a pity that the royal navy doesn’t seem keen on preserving it’s carrier hardware the same way that the USN has.

^ let’s keep aircraft similar across both decks, F-35B, for argument’s sake. i’ll take the carrier that gives me more aircraft, more deck space to operate those aircraft, more hanger space to maintain those aircraft, and a ski-jump that puts more take-off weight into those aircraft (or better yet, CATOBAR).

primary SAMs and anti-ship missiles should go in an escort hull.

let aircraft carriers be aircraft carriers and let escorts be escorts.

combining aviation and missile cruiser on a single hull might have worked ok for ASW ships like the moskva class with its aerial fleet of hormones, but once you bring fixed wing aircraft into the equation, it’s best to get as much deck and hangar as can fit on the hull.

50 years of service is certainly impressive. i wonder if her nuclear power plant will preclude her from becoming a museum upon her decommissioning. she certainly deserves the honor, but it may just be out of the realm of practicality.

So we now have a new carrier vessel designator then?. Not a CV or a CVN we now see the worlds first CVNBA???

(…..I’ll get my coat) 😮

This is a college b-ball match up, so the correct designation is CVNCAA 😀