Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

[cockneyjock1974]

Actually my WIFE prefers my longer range and wide area coverage

Moving on now before the Gehieme Stats Polizei send me to Fuhlsbuttel.

[jimthelad]

Actually my WIFE prefers my longer range and wide area coverage

Moving on now before the Gehieme Stats Polizei send me to Fuhlsbuttel.

Combat persistence and rounds on target count too!! As for piss up, count me in!

[cockneyjock1974]

Actually my WIFE prefers my longer range and wide area coverage

Moving on now before the Gehieme Stats Polizei send me to Fuhlsbuttel.

Combat persistence and rounds on target count too!! As for piss up, count me in!

Be good to see you again, the Hawes again one thinks!

[Enigmatically]

You can see the POW's radar on the deck as well cant be long till that's lifted in place.

Thats been up there for ages. No idea when it is going on

I think a GTA is supposed to be going onto PWLS this week as well. No idea if it has because I've been on QNLZ

QNLZ is making progress too. Not long before there will be some bits spinning at the back end.

[SKB]

QNLZ is making progress too. Not long before there will be some bits spinning at the back end.

QE has some 'Catherine Wheels' for November 5th party ?!

[Wrekin1410]

Monthly programme update is out

http://www.aircraftcarrieralliance.co.u ... r-2015.pdf

With great new pictures on flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/qeclasscarriers/

Not much in the way of groundbreaking news but a frustrating inconsistency in numbers on page 1 with the weight of the skid being quoted as noth more than 30,000t and 26,500t - from the same source!

[cockneyjock1974]

Think the GTA might have gone on today, not 100% sure though, there's a funny attachment on the crane which indicates that it has.

[Geoff_B]

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /75119168/

Not completely related but probably why the US is keen on the QE class to enter service and the possibility of on-board USMC F-35B unit to help cover their availability gaps or at least allow them to re-position what CVBG they have available to where the need is greater.

[Gabriele]

Well, it has been pretty clear for a long while now that the US Navy would like the british carrier (and Charles de Gaulle) to help keep some stations covered, allowing the CVNs to focus more on the Pacific.

It is not an unprecedented kind of cooperation either: the Royal Navy's last big carriers did cover the holes that formed when the US Navy had several of its own constantly busy in front of Vietnam...

[ArmChairCivvy]

Re; the above, I think the 5th and 7th fleets were operationally made the same (as opposed to having separate areas for Ops) just to achieve that same purpose

[Pymes75]

Latest blog from David Downs is up on The Engineer:

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/home/blog/ ... 67.article


According to David, they've already started up the Aft G/T, run the propulsion motors uncoupled and operated the Fwd a/c lift!!

Again, absolutely no news updates or even Tweets about it from the ACA!!

[Enigmatically]

Its a disgrace. You've had to wait 2 weeks for this news and had to read it in a form which has more than 140 characters.

I will point out to our PR dept that in the modern day such delays are not acceptable and we are lagging far behind the standards of openness of so many other major defence contracts in the UK and across the world.

At least I will if I can think of one such example.

I daren't tell you anything else that's happened.

[jimthelad]

Would you care for fullfat or semi skimmed milk to go with the prawn and catnip entre?

[jonas]

O'h dear, is that a miaow.

[Pymes75]

Its a disgrace. You've had to wait 2 weeks for this news and had to read it in a form which has more than 140 characters.

I will point out to our PR dept that in the modern day such delays are not acceptable and we are lagging far behind the standards of openness of so many other major defence contracts in the UK and across the world.

At least I will if I can think of one such example.

I daren't tell you anything else that's happened.

Patronise me if you like, I really couldn't care less personally but I would offer two thoughts:

1. In previous years, the ACA Communications Team did feel there was a benefit in putting out regular updates and were keen to engage with a lot of people who were equally interested in getting the good news message out into the public domain (myself included). I had those very conversations with John Fyall in the Project Office at Rosyth. Maybe the media brief/focus has changed as the Carrier Strike programme has become less of a political football, but those who run supportive websites have been left with much less information to report on.

2. I believe there is value in the regular drip feeding of good news about long and complex programmes. I see enough evidence of the difficulty in changing the public's perception of something when all they've had is a drip feed of negative anecdotes - "It's late", "It's overbudget", "It doesn't have cats and traps", "It's not nuclear", "It won't have any planes to fly from them". Ring any bells? I would have thought that, if at all possible, something as simple as a tweet would give interested employees, webmasters, editors, even politicians something to be able to point to as a demonstration of the progress being made all the time by the ACA.

[bobp]

Also mentioned in the blog is parts of the flight deck now getting Thermion coating.

[Enigmatically]

My sarcasm seems to have struck a nerve and been taken far more seriously than I expected.

There are some valid reasons why the flow has slowed. One is that none of the items mentioned are particularly amenable to a photo. That makes it harder.

Another is that whereas the block moves are big and obvious, the sort of events being described here are less so. The PR people are more dependent on busy engineers and managers writing PR guff

Thirdly those people may wish to wait for a more (to them) significant event. To take the example of a GTA being fired up. PR or indeed David may wish to comment just when it has been started. The team may wish to wait until all the setting to work tasks have been completed before reporting success. So that may delay things.

Fourthly the flow of photos and reports has slowed because the externals have largely been photographed, but the internals are increasingly subject to being classified or ITAR. Text reports have to be screened more carefully too.

Despite all those things this is the most open programme I know of. PR can be important, but it is still 2nd place to delivering the ships. And there is a lot to do. So although I was being tongue in cheek, the griping does seem unnecessary and unfair to me.

For those who were on the old MP site, you may recall that I did forecast this dissatisfaction over a year ago.

I would suggest you would be better served figuring out how quickly you can get to Rosyth and whether you can get there in time to watch it go under the bridge when it finally moves, and if so where you will watch from

[Gabriele]

Also mentioned in the blog is parts of the flight deck now getting Thermion coating.

Not Thermion. Thermal Metal Spray is a british coating solution that has been selected. Thermion is a US product, one of several being evaluated by the US Navy in the quest to find longer-lasting deck coating.

The latest NAO report unfortunately says that the Thermal Metal Spray application system isn't quite ready for coating an area the size of QE's deck, and that it is likely that only parts of it will receive the coat, with the rest using legacy coating. Prince of Wales should get the full coating right away.

[SDL]

[Pymes75]

Cheers SDL. Direct link to the corresponding Navy News article:

https://navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/13605

[SKB]

PoW Assembly Diagram Update (Friday 6th November 2015)
Skeg fitted to rear of LB04
Aft GTA (Gas Turbine Alternator) lifted and fitted onto SP07 Lower

PoW Assembly Diagram 06Nov2015 Skeg Aft GTA.PNG

[Jdam]

The speed of the POW construction is incredible

[easydiver]

New pictures of the GTA being installed are now on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/qeclasscarriers/

One picture seems to show the skeg now in position.

[SKB]

One picture seems to show the skeg now in position.

Good spot, thanks. I've updated my PoW diagram above ^ with the skeg now fitted.
Looks like LB05T is alongside the PoW awaiting a lift too.

[Tiny Toy]

The latest NAO report unfortunately says that the Thermal Metal Spray application system isn't quite ready for coating an area the size of QE's deck, and that it is likely that only parts of it will receive the coat, with the rest using legacy coating.

I should think the pilots will be quite interested if there are significantly different levels of performance in the nonskid depending exactly where they land