Or is BAE systems hoping the RN will operate only its products?

BAe has absorbed the VT shipbuilding division (VT exercised its rights to sell its share of BVT to BAe), this leaves BAe as the only company to operate warships construction yards in the UK.

With all that amphibious kit I can’t think of an occasion when they would ever let such an important asset as the CVF’s close enough to the shore to offload vehicles by Mexafloat anyway, so its probably for the best that they don’t have a dock.

For what its worth (nothing), in my opinion they should have reroled Invincible as an LPH and put command facilities on Ocean rather then the Albions, giving Invincible and Ocean with the command and control facilities, and the two Albion class ships which will go closer to shore to offlload landing craft should have been the cheap ships since they would be in the more dangerous position during an amphibious assault.

going off onto a diffrent subject but why did Australia go with the F100 over the German F124.. i dont blame them for not going American but the F124 seems like it would of been very competitive and it would probably have more commonality with the Anzacs

The RAN wanted CEC capability which i’m not sure the Sachsen class has. In addition, the F-100 is a much larger ship with 48 Strike length Mk.41 VLS rather then 32 Mk.41 which again, i’m not sure if they are strike length.

I also don’t know how APAR compares with the AN/SPY-1D(V) that Hobart will be getting.

Don’t tell me the Chinese (PRC) have purchased a decommissioned Essex Class, to which it is to be converted to a floating hotel/casino???:diablo:

Regards
Pioneer

ROFLMAO. They already have 2 or 3 Kiev class carriers on top of Varyag don’t they?

Yeah Maybe it’s a firewall or something similar? The hangers on CVF are big enough for 40 aircraft and the space to maintain them.

Are you sure the hangers are supposed to contain 40 aircraft? 😉

I thought they were supposed to hold 24 F35’s.

Those images are excellent. Assuming that hanger is based upon reality, its not very wide is it ? It doesn’t look much wider than an invincible class hanger. There must be a reason, as the layout of the hanger will be one of the areas where they will have focussed a great deal of design time.

That image actually looks a bit strange…..Fairly sure there are pictures on navy matters showing the hanger of CVF as twice the width of the Invincible class hanger plus quite a bit longer.

1) Probably, they started building a Nimitz sized CVN in the 1980’s.

2) Why are you asking? they don’t exist in service anymore so it is irrelevant.
Probably not though, even before strengthening for catapult operations they weigh almost double the weight of the F8 crusaders that operated from the essex’s towards the end of their service lives.

Yes, yes they do. Once again I’m wrong:

“Iron Monarch being the world’s first commercial vessel powered by an industrial gas turbine engine….Owing to mechanical breakdowns leading up to 1980, she was docked at Newcastle, New South Wales for major modifications. Primarily, metal fatigue from thermal recycling had reduced performance down to 16 knots from almost 23 knots maximum at initial sea trials. From 25 September 1980 she underwent satisfactory sea trials after conversion to simple cycle operation. she steamed at 17 knots , from 90 tonnes of waxy crude per day whilst horsepower was 17,500. Resumed normal services within the fleet until 9 March 1983 when she was laid up at Newcastle owing to economic downturn coupled with rising costs and reduced speed performance. Placed for sale on the market, she was later given a reprieve when BHP management decided upon re-engining her.”

So much for Iron Monarch (she remains in service in 2009, although as above she now has diesels).

Iron Duke was scrapped 1986 after suffering similar engineering issus as Iron Monarch.

Sounds like after the re-engineing Monarch did 18 knots on 30 tonnes of fuel compared to 20.5 knots on 82 tonnes of fuel, that means that the Diesels are a hell of a lot more efficient with a 2.5 knot reduction in the sustained speed.

But it as it sounds like Duke was out of the picture for a 1988 conversion since she was razor blades by then. TLW is a good story though, I highly recommend it. Wish there was more mention of the ADF though.