Was the UK right to scrap/sell there remaining carriers?

they did?

i thought they were buying new jets for those very carriers? :p

all the STOVL design, not super carriers, but still... useful!

I'm pretty sure they have a new class in production? The Queen Elizabeth class? I know they are still 8 years out but they are supposedly supposed to be the largest warships outside the US's supercarriers.

These are being designed around the JSF as well. I could be wrong, but last time I checked this is the case.

Either way with the way the global economy is working a large scale war is not very likely in the near future, and even so, the US and UK are so close that the incredibly capable Navy would be at her disposal

I thought the Chinese were developing a carrier off an old soviet design that would rival the US carriers in size? :-/

chinese + soviet = produced cheaply with reactor meltdown incoming

They have purchased an Admiral Kuznetsov class and have plans for atleast 2 more. While they are only slightly shorter in length, they are only about half the displacment of the US's Nimitz class.

Oh, and they can only carry half the aircraft

You should do what Australia does, buy shoddy old US military ships, subs, planes etc that don't work.

Oh yeah don't forget the helicopters that we bought that killed a whole bunch of Aussie soldiers because they aren't fit for flight.

Stealth subs that produce huge amounts of noise underwater

Tanks that are too heavy to deploy anywhere except the middle east...

New hornets whose flight control software is full of bugs

Automatic rifles that jam when fired in automatic mode.


Basically we buy this stuff so that if China or Indonesia invades us, the US will come save us.

The Royal Navy is currently in the process of decommissioning its Invincible Class Carriers. Of the three ships in that class, two have already been decommissioned. Only the HMS Illustrious remains in service.

HMS Illustrious is currently serving as a Helicopter Landing Platform until 2014 when HMS Ocean is due to finish her re-fit and fill that role. At that point, HMS Illustrious is expected to be retired.

The UK is currently constructing two carriers in the Queen Elizabeth class. However, only the first of these (the HMS Queen Elizabeth) is sure to enter service with the Royal Navy. When the current government entered power, it wished the scrap the second ship in the class. However, cancellation penalties meant that it will actually be cheaper for the government to build both ships.

The fate of the second ship is uncertain. It may enter "extended readiness" or simply be sold to another friendly nation immediately upon its launch.

Both of these ships were originally meant to be STOVL platforms. However, it has since been announced that the HMS Queen Elizabeth will be built in a CATOBAR configuration. It is unclear what design the second ship will follow.

At present, these ships seem likely to enter service in 2019 and 2020, respetively.

As for China, they are indeed in the process of building two carriers. These ships are expected to displace between 50,000 and 60,000 tonnes. For comparison, the HMS Queen Elizabeth will displace 65,000 tonnes and the upcoming US Ford class carriers will displace 102,000 tonnes.

Obviously this means that these ships will not rival US carriers in size. They will, however, give China appreciable naval air capabilities.

These carriers are not based off any existing design. China has bought a number of derelict carriers from around the world for study, but they are currently constructing based upon original designs.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

Basically what I just said.

communism ftw

I guess.

There's a lot of aircraft carriers planned to come online in the next 10 years.

The UKs got its 2 in 2019 and 2020.
India's got three, in 2012, 2015 and 2017.
China's got the two mentioned above for 2014 and seems to want to launch a nuclear one in 2020.
And, of course, the US is launching its first Ford class ship in 2015, with another in 2018 and a third in 2021.

That's 11 new carriers in the next 10 years -- and doesn't even account for Russia's plan to build 5 or 6 new carriers (it's still unclear if they'll get the first one launched by 2021) or France's talk of building a second ship to augment Charles De Gualle.

At the moment, there's only 21 in service world-wide. That's a huge increase.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

Russian and Chinese carriers will prove meddlesome. The additional 'allied' support will be welcomed. I'm hesitant to include the French carrier in either category!

they'll be there to Lure them in, by "surrendering" while the russian, and chinese carriers are busy with them, the allied ships will sneak up from behind.

The best aircraft carriers are made out of ice :)

Well, ice mixed with wood flakes

I am curious to see the next generation of Russian carriers. Will they be designed for the same sorts of missions that ours do or will it just be a scaled up version of the one they have now that was designed as part of the Bastion Defense doctrine.

win

If the falklands get invaded again how are the UK going to recapture them without air cover? We have a few euro fighters down there but 6 jets can't fight of an invasion

quite wrong, despite immediate "cost savings" being the motivator

the chinese carrier building programme has been very much given top priority - at least one should be finished by the end of this year

The defences on the island are a lot more formidable than they were in 1972. However, the thought of the Argentinian government, which is a democracy now launching an invasion is quite unthinkable.

There will be a window of a few years where the UK will have no carriers, but there is an agreement to share the Charles de Gaulle.

China with all of its claims around its waters and its lose proximity to the Western sphere of influence seems to be the next arena for the great power game.

Fools China is using its greatest power, piracy.

They purchased the old designs inorder to start the piracy cycle. Once two carriers are built they then create pirate copies of these two with two more. They cycle is endless untill they have the most navy on the planet.

Their countries special ability is the strongest.

Compare this the US's special ability 'manifest destiny' and I believe that China will win.

If China has the best navy, Australia's special ability 'surrounded by water' will also be defeated, then we will have to go back to our old ability 'loads of desert'

Weird double post from editing

Canada's special ability: nuclear proliferation.
WIN!
:P

The British have aircraft carriers?!? How do they land planes around the sails?

it was at news that brits were selling carriers and harriers.

http://www.reuters.com/...ale-idUSTRE72R51F20110328

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...rier-jump-jet-69-999.html

I didn't think Canada had nuclear stuff :X

nice

We don't have nuclear weapons, but we are a supplier of nuclear materials for the world and have the theoretical capacity to create nuclear weapons over a weekend if we were so inclined.

But since the hockey playoffs have started now, don't expect any proliferation until late June at the earliest.

I though AT&T was the biggest carrier!

That is an interesting point. These neosoviets have made a living on designing equipment specifically to counter one enemy, American naval superiority. I wonder what they will come up with.



We still have time to mitigate, if not counter, the rise Chinese naval power. They still have to develop a corp of carrier rated pilots and field adequate amounts of equipment. You just don't pop out a carrier one day and it is combat capable.

Exactly. Will their next carrier simply be the same sort of "ASW destroyer on crack" like their current one is, or will be a true mobile strike platform that is capable of project their power around the globe like ours are? A better question though is how has Russian naval doctrine changed in the last twenty years. How you use the ships you have is even more important then the ships themselves.

Makes you wonder why nobody just jumps to the more obvious 50's proposed solution of "just nuke 'em"


I think the US are in about as good a position since 1947 to win a global thermonuclear war....

The Russians haven't exactly been secretive about their plans. They want to build ships of the same kin as the Charles De Gualle and HMS Queen Elizabeth. Vessels which carry 40-50 aircraft and are adaptable to various roles.

No one wants the same kind of ships that the US has -- designed to fight complete wars practically single handed. Rather, they want to augment existing naval capabilities with the ability to deploy appreciable air assets.

I have to say, though, that to call the current soviet ship a glorified ASW destroyer is a little unfair. It does have some ASW capabilities, but that was never the niche that the Soviets saw their carriers filling. Rather, it was designed to achieve air supremacy in order to protect their Ballistic Missile Submarines from air attack, and potentially (in some situations) to do the same for their surface fleet.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

I think India is of the bent to produce US Style carriers.

Nice read