Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers - News and Discussion

[inch]

think ive asked before but can anybody remember when the documentary is going to be on about qe and what channel it will be on ? really looking forward like most on here I quess .thankyou

[CameronPerson]

think ive asked before but can anybody remember when the documentary is going to be on about qe and what channel it will be on ? really looking forward like most on here I quess .thankyou

It’s a three parter and is called “Carrier Strike” I believe and covers the past few years, should be a good one. I’m glad that the RN and ACA allowed it to be documented. Apparently it’s a two series thing and Terrill be rejoin the ship later this year and cover the rest of the sea trials including flight trials with the Lightning II in the Autumn

[inch]

thankyou CameronPerson ,yes sounds great

[CameronPerson]

[SKB]

Might it be a good idea to bring one of those dummy F35s to the QE for deck and lift handling tests too? Or are the RN too frightened of the "Big Lizzie Has Fake Jets" headlines if the newspapers found out?

[-Eddie-]

Great to see visual updates on testing, no matter how mundane they may seem. More please!

[CameronPerson]

[CameronPerson]

Could we be looking at a departure next week in this case? weather permitting of course

[CameronPerson]

And I’m going with Paveway and Stingray

[bobp]

And I’m going with Paveway and Stingray

Paveway IV and Stingray.

[NickC]

House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts report on the Carrier Strike Group, CSG, 10 January 2018, a few comments

The two carriers cost holding steady at £6,212. may be minor uplift.

F-35B

i) The 30 a/c ordered to date estimated at £100 m each, total £3 billion in the fantasy world of the MOD where pound buys $1.55, actual rate today is $1.38

ii) A/C whole life cost to 2048 of each jet was £270 million, but MOD admits it had low to medium confidence that these estimates were accurate, historical data suggests four to five times original costs.

Iii) MOD admitted current a/c overweight, UK Tier 1 status ends 2019 so UK priority drops to 4.5% as based on order numbers so UK will not receive any priority for integration of ASRAAM CSM, SPEAR 3 and Meteor, likely will be to sentto back of queue. mid twenties ?

Iv) The cost of the remaining 90 jets is less certain because the Department is still to decide when it will buy them, and whether they will be used for Carrier Strike, F-35Bs or F-35As undecided.

v) £5.8 billion cost of a/c for carriers, numbers not clear, "planned for each carrier to operate up to two squadrons of 12 jets, with the ability to surge to 36. In order to have 24 frontline jets, a multiple of that was needed in the fleet"

Only £0.3 billion in budget for Crowsnest, seems low.

"The Type 26s has been scheduled precisely in line with the Type 23s coming out of service, so that there would be no gap in anti-submarine support to the carriers. Industry is incentivised to deliver the ships to schedule." Ridiculously long time scale and generous payment for BAE if they can meet it. BAE contractual negotiators appear to make MOD look amateurs.

[Smokey]

And I’m going with Paveway and Stingray

Paveway IV and Stingray.

Bomby McBombface & Torpy McTorpface.

[jimthelad]

ASRAAM is already integrated with firings complete. Meteor is scheduled for testing 2019 it think but Gab did put a link somewhere in the past.

[ArmChairCivvy]

Typhoons and Rafales will get Meteor this year vs the F-35B's will start to carry them from 2024
- how that is compatible with the UK stock all being uniform (the 'clipped wing') Meteors, someone could perhaps enlighten me. It is of course possible that the statement on that in this http://defense-update.com/20170421_f35_meteor.html has been taken too categorically, and it is, rather, the long-term aspiration?

[hovematlot]

On the subject of weapons on QEC, or her embarked squadrons. As it stands the Invincible class packed a bigger punch in the anti-ship department with the SHAR/Sea Eagle combo that the QEC is planned to carry?

[abc123]

On the subject of weapons on QEC, or her embarked squadrons. As it stands the Invincible class packed a bigger punch in the anti-ship department with the SHAR/Sea Eagle combo that the QEC is planned to carry?

That's really surprising to hear...

[Timmymagic]

how that is compatible with the UK stock all being uniform (the 'clipped wing') Meteors, someone could perhaps enlighten me.

Gab has previously advised that the only difference is the fins, no other changes. As the fins are attached after the missile is removed from its crate its likely we'll just buy 2 sets of fins per missile body.

[hovematlot]

On the subject of weapons on QEC, or her embarked squadrons. As it stands the Invincible class packed a bigger punch in the anti-ship department with the SHAR/Sea Eagle combo that the QEC is planned to carry?

That's really surprising to hear...

I'm not sure, but the only light- ish on the horizon is Spear III, but that has a small warhead. It could conduct a saturation attack to make up for the small warhead. But then Sea Eagle could do that too..

[ArmChairCivvy]

As it stands the Invincible class packed a bigger punch in the anti-ship department with the SHAR/Sea Eagle combo that the QEC is planned to carry?

It is true, but the USN has already recognised that they may need to sink enemy ships (again, after a long pause) and I am sure that belatedly we will follow.

Spear3 is not a bad option, as anti-missile defences have come a long way, and of those you can carry many... in order to do a salvo launch
- whether you achieve a sinking or a mission kill is still going to be a better outcome than your "old" missile being shot down by the target

Right, hovematlot got there first...

[NickC]

ASRAAM is already integrated with firings complete. Meteor is scheduled for testing 2019 it think but Gab did put a link somewhere in the past.

The new updated and more capable version of ASRAAM, the CSP, Capability Sustainment Programme, funded by £300 million contract in 2015.

CSP to enter service on Typhoon in 2018, F-35B will soldier on with original ASRAAM till 2022, MOD states cross over to CSP yet to be determined. ASRAAM CSP will require F-35B integration with Block 4 software and as mentioned previously UK at back of the queue with only a 4.5% vote.

[Enigmatically]

Apologies if I missed it, but I didn't see anyone post this link which has a video of the Merlin being struck down

https://www.facebook.com/HMNBPortsmouth ... BA&fref=nf

[bobp]

Thanks for sharing the above, found myself imagining that sort of operation, with two merlins on the lift whilst underway. I guess that there is a lot of training yet to be done during these trials.

[seaspear]

Without getting into the full deployment of the F35b on board is it known when the carrier could be considered operational although with just rotary craft for deployment

[Gabriele]

Interim LPH capable by the end of the summer was the idea, although it is not clear when Chinooks and Apache will get their first go.

[ArmChairCivvy]

Interim LPH capable by the end of the summer was the idea

So we only take a half a year's capability holiday?
- though the Ocean sale to Brazil has not been inked yet? I guess we should only count her out when she is pulling into a dry dock for reconditioning (at the buyer's expense)