England's New Super-Carriers

The aft island is on the barge, attached to the tugs & currently underway from Scotstoun (Glasgow) down the River Clyde. Here's a photo from earlier tonight, the dusk is here so it's not the greatest photo unfortunately. It should take a few days to get around the Scottish coast to Rosyth, maybe a week, depending on the sea state.

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


Just posting cause this thread has grown on me and I want to have it in myats. Keep up the pics!

reply to post by boomer135


Here's another just for you

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


Nice!

Hmmmm. Looks pretty expensive to me. I suppose the citizens of England can afford to pay for this. They can raise the price of petro a buck or two and noone will complain.

The aft island will (seemingly) arrive at Rosyth at approx 11.00-12.00rs GMT tmorro, the sea states have been calm so it's made good progress around the coast.

Some more pics .... and a video ! These are of the barge carrying the aft island leaving the Firth of Clyde. Scotland is a beautiful country isn't it ?








Great site too here with very many high res pics that I'm unable to upload here due to memory limitations on ATS uploads.

www.riverclydephotography.org...

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


yes it is when it's not pissing down

nice pic of it going past Dumbarton Rock and Castle

The aft island has arrived at Rosyth. There it will be fitted to HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Here is a photo of it passing underneath the Forth Bridge.

The aft island should hopefully be attached to the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth early as this week to come. Sponson 10 forward has seemingly been installed, haven't seen any pics of that unfort.

I'm as guilty as anyone else but we've kinda forgotten about sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, construction of which is also underway. I'll post more of her next week.

Meanwhile light carrier HMS Ark Royal has reached the end of her life. She has arrived in Turkey to be scrapped.

Here is a shot of the barge coming in under the Forth Road Bridge.



And the aft island has today been moved from the barge and onto the quayside. Her 750 tons will be lifted into position on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth later this week hopefully, then we'll get a better idea of quite how radical this big ship is going to look.

Hello friends

Here is this weeks build diagram. Sponson 10F is the addition this week, hopefully this time next week we'll have the aft island on the next diagram.

Also here is another pic from Rosyth showing the aft island being made ready for it's lift onto the deck.

I'm working on some data for HMS Prince of Wales but unfort due to domestics / kids school holidays that will have to wait now until the middle of next week, sorry about that.

Late news ... reliably advised the aft island is being lifted onto the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth tonight

They must've left it until daylight hours ... because the aft island has just been placed on the deck.








So ... any thoughts on the HMS Queen Elizabeth now the two islands are installed ?

And another ...

65,000 tonnes of British diplomacy.

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


Nice

As soon as I saw that design I knew it was specifically designed for VTOL aircraft. I didn't look through every single page to check if this had been posted already, but this is the aircraft this warship will be carrying...



This one single carrier will have the firepower of an entire battlegroup of WWII. Slow speed cruising for ground attack and assault support, high speed cruising to engage enemy aircraft, and helicopters to ferry troops ashore and conduct anti submarine countermeasures. I wouldn't doubt it in the least that this thing had the latest anti ship missile defense capabilities as well.

What seafaring nation wouldn't want something like this?

So are all the pieces in place now?

reply to post by boomer135


See build diagram above, fairly self explanatory.

Build diagram 1st Juillet 2013.

Also the director of the construction program has said that HMS Queen Elizabeth will be "structurally complete" before the end of 2013. That is good news, presumably it means the ship can clear the dock while sister ship HMS Prince of Wales is constructed.

www.defencemanagement.com...