England's New Super-Carriers

Some aerial photos from yesterday. Still a couple of sponsons to add towards the stern, you can see one being made ready on the dockside. The SSN submarine has cleared the other dock, incidentally.

This ship is seemingly enormous, the pictures simply don't get this over.

Sorry for how small this image is.

This is one of the first parts of the ski jump. It's on deck, the ski jump is 3-4 months ahead of schedule.



Meanwhile, in USA, the "sister ship" of HMS Queen Elizabeth is the nuclear powered carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. The US GAO is reporting considerable delays to that ship, so bad that they're recommending a halt to the tendering process for the next ship in the class.

Technical, design and construction challenges" with the first carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, have caused "significant cost increases and reduce the likelihood that a fully functional ship will be delivered on time," the Government Accountability Office said in a draft report obtained by Bloomberg News. The Ford, already the most expensive warship ever built, is projected to cost $12.8 billion, 22 percent more than estimated five years ago. The report raises questions about the future of U.S. seapower in a time of reduced defense budgets and about whether new carriers are affordable as they assume greater importance in the Pentagon's strategy to project U.S. power in the Asia/Pacific region. Delays and "reliability deficiencies" with the flattop's new dual-mission radar, electromagnetic launch system and arresting gear for aircraft mean that the Ford "will likely face operational limitations that extend past commissioning" in March 2016 and "into initial deployments," the agency said.

asitimes.blogspot.co.uk...
www.bloomberg.com...
www.dailypress.com...

And with apologies to the thread author, for what follows has nothing to do with this thread really, but here are pictures of the Invincible class carrier HMS Ark Royal being finished off at the scrappers yard. It's sad to see ships scrapped.

Just for some perspective, here is a photo of the battleship HMS King George V in the same dock as the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is today. I love comparing old photos with new ones taken at the same location, hope you do too.



And a Merlin helicopter was spotted this week circling overhead the new ship.



Not much else to report, bit of a slow week unfortunately.

it is not an aircraft carrier until there are aircraft on it our gov blew 1.5 billion on refits and plan changes deciding on vtol for the aircraft that will not be on it until 2017 + .

great pictures of the ship it is a shame to see the old ark royal being scrapped as i remember it being built

Sorry for being so long absent, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance are getting a bit parsimonious with their photos.

Some quick looks at the internals of HMS Queen Elisabeth. I'm sorry but they're very mundane photos. Hopefully the photos will become more interesting soon.

And a pic of one of the British pilots crewing a F35-B on board US warship USS Wasp.

Launch date for HMS Queen Elisabeth is seemingly being set provisionally as 1st July 2014 ... not long now, really.

ATS contributor Zaphod58 is very clued up on aircraft, especially the F35.

You might want to keep an eye out for some of his informative threads.

LeBombDiggity
especially the F35.

Speaking of the F-35 sea trials round 2 are ending today, as well as some other problem solving.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by LeBombDiggity
Just for some perspective, here is a photo of the battleship HMS King George V in the same dock as the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is today. I love comparing old photos with new ones taken at the same location, hope you do too.

A great picture from the past LBD...

wouldn't it be a great sight nowadays Patrolling the oceans with it's HUGE guns...

PDUK

reply to post by PurpleDog UK


That's the same battleship which helped sink the German warship Bismarck, isn't it ? Shame they all got scrapped after the war. I've visited the WW2 cruiser HMS Belfast in Londres, it is a museum ship, and we also "unofficially" visited HMS Plymouth a fregate from the Falkland Islands/la guerre des Malouines when it was berthed at Liverpool. My friend and I sneaked on it one night, he's really into urban exploration. HMS Plymouth was a museum too. And on the subject of HMS Plymouth I am sorry to report she is to be scrapped as well. Materially she was in a terrible state a few years ago, today she does look a sorry state. She needs put out of her misery.



Anyway back to these ships and what I think is the first photo from HMS Prince of Wales !
This is a photo of one of the motor propulsor units (1 of 4) being fitted to the section at Glasgow BAe Govan yard.

Another photo of one of the new upper sections of HMS Prince of Wales. This section is being put together at Portsmouth.



And the next picture is of the radar cap for HMS Queen Elizabeth.



The official displacement for these two ships has now increased to 70,600 metric tons. By the time these ships enter service, they'll either be the second largest aircraft carrier class in service ... or the third ... depending on whether the lead ship of the USS Gerald R. Ford class joins the USN on time (doubtful). Of course, they'll be behind the Nimitz class too.

Not bad, though, if you set your standards by size alone, not that Frenchmen ever do *cough*

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


The Ford is actually really close to on schedule for a build that size. The hull is 100% complete, and she's only slipped about four months right now. She was scheduled for launch in July, but they've pushed it back to November 9, 2013, with delivery early in 2016.

reply to post by Zaphod58


The Navy Secretary said last year that USS Gerald R. Forde was on budget, on time. But this Summer's GAO report said the USS Gerald R. Forde was hitting problems & that delivery of a fully functional ship on time was unlikely. It doesn't seem to be the nuts and bolts of the ship which are the problem, it's the new, complex systems where the problems lie i.e. radar systems, catapults, traps

So much so that the GAO said construction of the second ship of the class should be paused until lessons are learned on the lead ship, although a pause on such a large program can cost a fortune in itself. I don't think the USN were too amused by the report, although to be fair to the taxpayers the ship is 22% over budget so I think some criticisms are warranted about the way the project has been run.

I think there's friction between the Defense Department & the GAO on this project and many others, though, so it's difficult really to work it out unless you're really in the know (which I am not lol).

reply to post by LeBombDiggity


Oh yeah, there's always been friction between the GAO and the DoD. Some of the systems have been coming together, like EMALS. Haven't kept up with the new arresting gear, but I know at least one new radar system the Navy is after (not sure if it's the same one for the carrier or not) is having issues. It runs a lot hotter than they expected which means more weight for cooling systems.

I suspect they're going to end up getting some of the new toys (the ones that are working right in testing), and have to add the others during refit, which is going to hurt, but at least they get the hull in service.

Just another shot of the long range radar & mast cap, on a barge in the Netherlands. It's making it's way now to Rosyth, Scotland. It's been built by Thales Netherlands & BAe Systems. It's similar to those used on the new British Type 45 Air Defense Destroyers.

Hope the picture appears. The new ATS site upload system is quite a bit different to it's predecessor.



The following video is a bit of fun. Simulated landing of an F35-B on board one of these new ships.

A nice video follows of two British pilots, one from the RAF and the other from the Royal Navy. They're testing the F35-B on board the US warship USS Wasp (is the RAF getting F35-B's too ?)



And the following video is just another bit of fun, this time a video of the new British Type 26 destroyer, which will be the workhorse of their navy in the 2020's and beyond.

LeBombDiggity
A nice video follows of two British pilots, one from the RAF and the other from the Royal Navy. They're testing the F35-B on board the US warship USS Wasp (is the RAF getting F35-B's too ?)

That testing session ended on the 1st. But to answer your question, yes and no. They're going to stand up 17 Squadron in 2015 as an Operational Test and Evaluation squadron, which will be joint RAF/RN, then 617 Squadron for the first operational squadron, which will be a joint RAF/RN squadron. I've heard that the second operational squadron will have an RN squadron number, but will also be joint, and the third will be the first pure RN squadron.

They're going to start operations at RAF Marham before being qualified on the Queen Elizabeths. They have three aircraft at Eglin, with 2 instructors in training (1 from each service) along with 20 maintenance personnel in training. The 17 Squadron personnel are at Edwards already being certified in the OT&E process. New UK pilots will be trained in Beaufort South Carolina at the Marine flight training center.

Some interesting comments from both the pilot and maintenance side of the UK group.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I'm quite a jealous 45 yr old ex pilot...

The ski jump decks always looked cheesy to me. I dunno why?

Good to see the UK's Navy getting some new boats!