HMS Queen Elizabeth enters Portsmouth

[mrclark303]

Morning all,

A great day for the Royal Navy and Great Britain today as our new 70,000 ton aircraft Carrier Queen Elizabeth arrives in Portsmouth.

I was hoping to head down to welcome her home for the first time, but work precludes this unfortunately.

Once she's fully operational, QE2 and her sister ship Prince of Wales ate going to a superb assets for the country.

Information

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[Gil Boyd]

Dwarfed by every other country, but as they say "Size isn't everything" and it fairs quite nicely. Lets hope the boffins have sorted out the list of serious glitches before signing it off including the deck CATOBAR propulsion system!!

[mrclark303]

Dwarfed by every other country, but as they say "Size isn't everything" and it fairs quite nicely. Lets hope the boffins have sorted out the list of serious glitches before signing it off including the deck CATOBAR propulsion system!!

Don't know about dwarfed Gil, that graphic is slightly outdated, shes 70,000 tons (turned out 5000 tons heavier when she was finished) and second only in size to the mighty US Navy fleet Carriers. They ditched the CATBAR idea and reverted to the ski jump and F35B back in 2013.

Great the UK is finally back in the Fleet Carrier business for the first time since 1979 when the old Ark Royal was scrapped!

[Flying10uk]

Great Britain and the Royal Navy invented the aircraft carrier and we were the first nation ever to launch ship based aircraft against land targets, during WW1. We also invented the steam catapult used on some carriers together with the ski jump found on some other carriers.

[Gil Boyd]

Generalising of course............................ but the catapult system was a fiasco at high level, it should have been called CATO9TAILS, and given to the desk jockey's who signed off on that error.
All that aside, I don't want to appear that I am bashing the Royal Navy, great day for them and the country. Lets hope she lasts 50 years!
Hope they buy some aircraft now to be able to get a backlog of trained PARA's their wings finally.....shameful!!!

[Flying10uk]

but the catapult system was a fiasco at high level, it should have been called CATO9TAILS, and given to the desk jockey's who signed off on that error.

I clearly remember the announcement being made to the public, that the design of the Queen Elizabeth would be changed to incorporate catapults and arrester gear. It was the Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, and it sounded like the best thing since sliced bread, the way he was talking. The announcement that the design had been changed back to how it was originally was much more low key, after millions of pounds of tax payers money had been wasted.

[Gil Boyd]

Low key was right............one of the many fiascos that led to 5,000 MOD staff being made redundant at Abbey Wood, that and the Nimrod Project/Challenger upgrades etc etc

[Mk VII]

All we need now is some aeroplanes to carry on it, instead of fresh air.
All the berths and harbours they are going to use have had to be dredged to take them - one of the reasons why the Malta-class carrier design was abandoned during the war, none of the berths could have handled them without dredging, and only the Gladstone Graving Dock in Liverpool would have been capable of dry-docking them, and then only with care.

[Flying10uk]

All we need now is some aeroplanes to carry on it, instead of fresh air.

Looking on the bright side, at least we can say that we now have the world's largest helicopter carrier, until fixed wing aircraft are embarked for the first.

[mrclark303]

With regard to the F35, even if the aircraft was ready, the ship isn't.

First off, she has to be fitted with her defensive Systems and complete the extensive and hugely complex contractor sign off and commissioning possess.

When that's finally completed and thousands of ticks are placed in boxes, the contractors leave the ship, she's formally commissioned and she flys the white ensign for first time.

Sea trials with the F35 start next year and should neatly dovetail into the ships operational work up.

The plus side of slightly delayed F35 procurement, means we will be getting a more mature aircraft.

The unit cost will also be falling as production ramps up and the initial high development costs (factored into the unit price) starts to fall too.

By 2025, the UK will have a big, very visible stick to make potential enemy's think twice...