“Perhaps when the UAV Base stations are moved to the UK from Creech,then the following may come to fruition.”

Possible, but i think that for some more time at least, the “Remotely Piloted Air System” (note the wise and prudent name choice, too!) will be politically “too hot” to think about giving control of it to anyone other than a qualified pilot, at least if the drone is armed. Watchkeeper is a thing, Reaper another.
Press and lobbysts and human rights activists and all sorts of other noise-makers are already against UAVs as it is…

And anyway, for what i understood, not all ops at Creech are to end. And the transfer of 39 Squadron’s operations back home will likely take some time.
XIII Squadron is to stand up as a second Reaper squadron with the 5 new drones next year, and it’ll use them from the UK to relieve 39 and give it the chance to move back to the UK as well.

Unless of course the plan changes / has already been changed in the latest round of financial “adjustments”… XD

It’s not just money. It also has operational effects. Long distance, long duration strikes inevitably reduce sortie rates, response times, time over target, etc. To get the same effect, you need more aircraft & more pilots.

Well, of course.
There’s many nasty consequences. The UK has also burned a lot of the remaining airframe hours of Tornado in pointless, hours-long transits to the target areas.
And a few times, Tornado GR4 had to abort mission and land in Malta for emergencies of various kinds.
It takes a toll, for sure.

“Having the carrier close enough to make use of fireshadow would be quite risky.”

Depends on what enemy you are facing! HMS Ocean went even closer to that to the Libyan coast, more than once, it seems. They could see the fires of the Apache attacks from the deck!

…

While the RAF is proud to state that they are flying missions “like taking off from Oslo and going to Paris and back…”, lasting “up to 7 hours!”

Wing Commander Patounas described the scale of a regular sortie, which could sometimes be up to seven hours long:

“To give you an idea of the distances we were covering; every sortie over Libya is the equivalent of launching from Oslo, flying to London, looking for a target, finding one and striking it.

“Then flying to Paris to look for another target before flying to Luxembourg to do exactly the same and then flying back to Oslo to land.”

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/RafTyphoonsReturnFromLibyaOperations.htm

Too bad there isn’t a Facepalm emoticon, because i’d use one.
Although this is of course a great accomplishment and everything, EVERYONE can see that being closer thanks to an aircraft carrier would be a lot better.
If we could avoid talking of the distance in triumphant terms, it would be better.

When the cost of ops comes out, that distance will be paid in LOTS of money.

Also, is anyone aware of any real reason for flying all the Storm Shadow raids all the way from Marham?
Other than showing off, i don’t see why a bunch of missiles can’t be brought to Gioia (which is already far enough as it is) like Paveway IV and Brimstones.

Hell, ask us Italians for a bunch if it is “urgent”, we use it too. (better saying, we HAVE it too…) Then you can give Italy back an equal numbers of yours at leisure afterwards…
But no. Better to fly 8 hours, refuel in flight each plane four times and expend all that money… Sincerely, i do not get it.

Of course we need our honorary Brit Liger30 along as well if he fancies the trip

I totally wish/dream to do it. The idea is that a friend and I would take a trip into the UK, in time to make it all the way up north to see QE complete and going, to sing Rule Britannia as it comes out of dock!
Plenty of places i want to see in the UK, after all. Gotta visit the tank museum in Bovington and other sweet places, for example. I really hope i’ll be able to take that travel.

“QE wasn’t designed for the LPH role”

Don’t know how far i can agree. It has long been assumed that CVF would have a secondary LPH role, (that now became primary under the “Carrier Enabled Power Projection” concept) and i believe a good number of design solutions kept this in mind.

By the way, MBDA at DSEI was showing Fire Shadow used from ships, and in the video you can see… deck marked “Q”, with… modifications from the QE we know.
For example: no sky jump in sight (and ok so far), what would appear as a new, additional lift in the deck judging by deck markings (weird) and a number of superstructures and a big ass crane mounted aft, making it look almost like Ocean in that area, where the LCAC(L) are usually embarked.

Have a look at it yourselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJDJm3eawcM

MOD hypothesis for modifications for improved Amphibious capability? MBDA being imaginative?
Why did they make a video with a QE model like that, when they could have used plenty of graphics already available?

I probably see too much in a simple promotional video, but it is interesting nonetheless.
The most urgent modifications if QE ever gets refitted to better work as Commando carrier, is the addition of RoRo ramps leading into the hangar.
And larger boat recesses with davits for LCVP MK5, if they aren’t already large enough.
It is not exactly clear what kind of ship boats CVF will use, and what kind of accomodation for them she’ll have, is it…?

@CockneyJock

Thanks a bunch for the photos! Always great stuff, pub and minesweeper included!

The curse of the Chinook in naval role is the rotors. The 14 new HC6 helicopters on order should be bought with folding rotors. Now that would be a smart thing to do.

In terms of footprint:

F35C

Length: 15,7
Width (unfolded) 13,2
Width (folded) 9,47

Apache (folded)

Length 17,76 m
Width 5,5 m (due to the wings)

Merlin footprint (folded)

Length 16,9 m
Width 5,2 m

Chinook (unfolded, rotor open)

Length 30 m
Width 18,5 m

Lynx Mk8 folded (Wildcat should be nearly identical, i believe)

Length 10.854 m
Width 2.940 m (not entirely sure, might be a bit more)

I see no problem fitting 36 F-35Cs, four MASC (whatever they end up being) and not forgetting the six ASW Merlins that are standard fit on RN carriers.

Other than finding for real all those things and be cleared for embarking them… with the numbers being low and the RAF controlling what the F35Cs do, i’m kind of worried, you know.

They probably weren’t real eager to try lifting such a huge piece with wind blowing strong their way…! Hopefully tomorrow, then. Glad that you at least have means to pass time while you are out “hunting” for images!