The Sea 5000 future frigate project has a reported budget of $35b aus (£20b) for 9 frigates. The Canadian Surface Combatant project has a reported budget of $60b can (£35b) for 15 ships. In both cases, in crude numbers, that is more than £2b per ship. The signing of the deal to start construction of...

In the mind of any journalist or press officer, "MOD places £3.7b order" is a better story/headline than "MOD places £2.3b order, on top of £1.4b already spent." Struggling to understand the figures banded around, are you 100% sure that the new outlay for the first 3 is £2.3b mo...

In the mind of any journalist or press officer,
"MOD places £3.7b order"
is a better story/headline than
"MOD places £2.3b order, on top of £1.4b already spent."

Canada has budgeted upto £35b ($60b can) to buy their 15 ships. That is well over £2b per ship. They accept that some of this high price is because they will be built in Canada. Anyway, with today's figures putting the UPC of the T26 at about £740m, it is clearly not out of the running for the Canad...

If Donald's numbers are right, the next batch of 5 T26 ships should also cost £3.7b. It will be interesting to see what the real figure turns out to be, and whether MOD's decision to wait until the Terms of Business Agreement expires, and there is extra competition from the T31 yards, results in a l...

Of course. Speed of a ship changes with, load (full load, standard or light), air temperature and hull cleanliness (creature on the hull). If the 26 knot of T26 is required in full load and hot environment (say, in the Gulf), in light condition in British winter its speed will exceed 28knot easily....

If the order for the first batch of 3 T26 is announced on Sunday or Monday... And if the first steel is cut a week later... Then the first T26 could be in service around 2025. This would mean that the contract for the second batch would fall after the present Terms of Business Agreement with BAE has...

Surely the Sea Harriers at Culdrose were not just retained for deck handling purposes? Isn't it time they were reactivated to put some fixed wing on QE purely for training purposes and to give some, albeit limited, capability in a crisis? This could ease F35 onto the ships, and build the framework ...

Iron Duke and Sutherland both have Artisan but only Sutherland has Sonar 2087. Neither has CAMM (yet). However, I'm happy with this level of protection considering the group has yet to leave UK waters.

SKB wrote:When will the RAF Chinooks start lowering in the 470 London buses?

I think you will have to wait for PoW, as this is probably reliant on her modifications for the Littoral Manoeuvre role.

With QE stealing all the Limelight, it's good to see all the activity on PoW. I wonder just how far ahead of her sister she is in terms of outfitting, with the blocks being so much more comp than her Sister, maybe she could be ready to sail by early in the New year???? The plan had PoW down to begi...

marktigger wrote:fine for the first couple of years

A very cynical view.

But you might well be right.

As much as possible I think the RN is going to avoid having both carriers deployed operationally at the same time; it would put to much strain on the logistics chain. Of course there probably will be times when both are at sea at the same time, when one or both are training in UK waters. Also, it i...

Does anyone actually believe we are ever going to deploy both carriers? Surely that would require a step change in manning level just to start with, then look at aviation assets and the list goes on and on. On paper both Albions are available for deployment but the same problem exist there. No the ...

A pity really as I d think the USMC airwing will be having a luxury cruise on the Queen Elizabeth with all that flight deck and hanger space to play with. Ski jump as well....but really it's all about the bar.. Interesting article (but a little old) on page 259, "United States Navy Ski Jump Ex...

Only closed to pedestrians. Minimal implications for most bridge users.

Tide times for Monday (BST):

High 0504 & 1731
Low 1123 & 2328

If I was calling the shots, and looking at the weather forecast, I'd go for a 5 am move out of the Rosyth basin, fill up the fuel and ballast tanks and then a 1120 run under the bridges.

But that call is way above my pay grade...

Okay, one last try. At the moment most RN ships go through a long refit period of 12 months or more. During this period they lose almost all of their crew. When they come out of refit, they go through a long period of training as the new crew is worked up. They then cycle through periods of deployme...

You are failing to understand the complexity, but I think I'll just give up. Try reading about force elements at readiness (FE@R) and the R0 to R12 states of readiness. It is not as simple as deployed, at sea, at rest and in refit.

The key, to state the bloody obviously, is the designated escorts will need to pretty much always be at the same readiness state as the carrier. So if a carrier is alongside and undertaking maitenance / refit while keeping a readiness state of say 10 days notice to move, escorts will also need to be...

The plan for the QEC is that they will only go into dry dock for a few weeks once every 5 or 6 years. All other maintenance / refit work is to be done while alongside during Fleet Time Support Periods or even while at sea. Across the Invincible class, the ships spent ~40% of their time unavailable ...

I'm not sure that the major changes to how the RN operates when the two carriers are in service are fully appreciated. For example, with the Invincible class each ship spent long periods in dry dock/refit - in many cases longer than 12 months. The plan for the QEC is that they will only go into dry ...

As has been publicly stated, the standard carrier group will consist of 24 F35s and 16 Merlins on the carrier, 9 of which will be HM2 ASW. The rest of the ships in the group will carry Wildcat. The reason for concentrating all the Merlins on the carrier is it greatly reduces the total number of main...

Weather forecast for Rosyth:

Friday pm - 16°C, 18 mph wind
Sat am - 12°C, 20 mph wind
Sat pm - 14°C, 46 mph wind
Sun am - 14°C, 19 mph wind
Sun pm - 16°C, 15 mph wind
Mon am - 13°C, 6 mph wind
Mon pm - 13°C, 10 mph wind

Has the compartment space directly below the ski jump been allocated for anything yet?

If not, could it be used as an brig overflow, for those people who may need a spot for a quiet kip after an overindulgence or two on a run ashore?