UK Defence Forum

seaspear wrote:Which P.L.A.N aircraft is considered carrier capable and fifth generation ?

None at present, but the rumours are that the FC-31 will find its first domestic customer n the PLAN. Whether there is any truth in that is hard to tell, it may just be based purely on the fact that it looks like the F-35 and that the PLAAF have shown zero interest in it, and thats the only shot they have at present as the J-20 is not carrier capable.

sunstersun wrote:

Also the seven years war basically KO'd France's chance of lingua franca. Secured English for all of history. That's crazy to think about.

Offtopic a bit, don't you think? And I disagree, it was WW1 not Seven-Years War...

abc123 wrote:

sunstersun wrote:

Also the seven years war basically KO'd France's chance of lingua franca. Secured English for all of history. That's crazy to think about.

Offtopic a bit, don't you think? And I disagree, it was WW1 not Seven-Years War...

nah, it was the Seven Years War. That war ensured that NA would speak English, which Bismarck said would be the most consequential geopolitical situation in the 20th century.

Oh yeah totally off topic, I was drunk ranting last night.

More night shots:

From the HMS QNLZ twitter page still more shots.

I just find the night shots more evocative and somehow give a better impression of power.

Stumbled accross this last night really shows the scale of the QEs when compared to our previous few carriers

I laugh at these scale pics jake 1992 , even the qe in this drawing shows 290 mtrs or more when its not , even against the other ships in the same graph .dint think ive ever seen a true scale graph yet against other vessels. They always show qe bigger than she really is .not a problem but dont belive the hype folks .just my take

inch wrote:I laugh at these scale pics jake 1992 , even the qe in this drawing shows 290 mtrs or more when its not , even against the other ships in the same graph .dint think ive ever seen a true scale graph yet against other vessels. They always show qe bigger than she really is .not a problem but dont belive the hype folks .just my take

I wasn't able to see the numbers on the scale at the top due to it becoming burly when zooming in on my phone. If it is show 290m odd then it could be out.
It's a shame would be really nice to be able to find a reliable comparison between the QEs and our previous carriers

Jake1992 wrote: It's a shame would be really nice to be able to find a reliable comparison between the QEs and our previous carriers

You can find shots when QNLZ was in drydock in Scotland, with Illustrious sat in the adjacent dock, that does a good job of it for me!

Defiance wrote:

Jake1992 wrote: It's a shame would be really nice to be able to find a reliable comparison between the QEs and our previous carriers

You can find shots when QNLZ was in drydock in Scotland, with Illustrious sat in the adjacent dock, that does a good job of it for me!

Oh yh Iv seen that it's a nice image a illustrates the QEs size, I'd just like to see an actuate comparison with the audacious class ( the last full size carrier we had ) to give a true scale of why she's so big and so powerful for the RN lol that's just me

Defiance wrote:You can find shots when QNLZ was in drydock in Scotland, with Illustrious sat in the adjacent dock, that does a good job of it for me!

Seems USS Lassen has temporaily taken over the QE escort role.

sunstersun wrote:

abc123 wrote:

sunstersun wrote:

Also the seven years war basically KO'd France's chance of lingua franca. Secured English for all of history. That's crazy to think about.

Offtopic a bit, don't you think? And I disagree, it was WW1 not Seven-Years War...

nah, it was the Seven Years War. That war ensured that NA would speak English, which Bismarck said would be the most consequential geopolitical situation in the 20th century.

Oh yeah totally off topic, I was drunk ranting last night.

Declarations of WW1 were still written in French...

One is impressive, but two together is going to be awesome

Poiuytrewq wrote:One is impressive, but two together is going to be awesome

image.jpg

Hopefuly one day we'll see them both like that with a good number of F35s on board each like the cgi

I was just thinking that the CGI of both carriers together only leaves 17 F-35s back in the U.K.!*

* Assuming that there is a total purchase of 48, none of the aircraft in the image are from allied nations and all the aircraft are visible with none in the hanger.

Anyone know if the deck is going to be repainted? I still can’t quite get my head around how worn and weathered the deck looks...has done since she came out of Rosyth....what’s the deal with that?

In a controversial quote in a book I am reading a senior member of RUSI has stated the MoD and RN are revisiting how they new carriers will be operated. Instead of the carrier being the core element of the Carrier group it role would shift to supporting the other vessels in the group. The reason for this is that the carriers will not themselves carry the necessary firepower to carry out the planned "Carrier strike", role for which there were envisioned and so will provide support in the form of missions in Air Defence, ELINT, electronic and visual surveillance and attack for the other vessels in the task force. In seems to me to be the next chapter in the "What do we do with the carrier" sage where they went from full carriers with a 36 aircraft compliment of F-35s to meet a sortie rate at a certain level to flexible aviation platforms with tailored air groups to this.

I take it that these would be Carrier Resourced Air Patrols? I refuse to be the first to devise and use the apparent acronym!
Oh and by the way, apart from Tomahawk, what other weapons do the other vessels have that could get anywhere near the combat radius of an F35B.
If true, these "people" are obviously not to be trusted to do anything useful in the defence of the country.

Jake 1992 Wrote:-

I wasn't able to see the numbers on the scale at the top due to it becoming burly when zooming in on my phone. If it is show 290m odd then it could be out.
It's a shame would be really nice to be able to find a reliable comparison between the QEs and our previous carriers

Even allowing for the fact that the sterns of QEC and Invincible Classes are not aligned correctly with the other carriers, QE class are not far off the 284 Metres that they actually are. The image here may be nearer 290 Metres, but it is close enough to be a fair representation relative to the sizes of the other carriers. There is one qualification here however, namely the Audacious class carrier shown is HMS Eagle, which did not have the deck extensions that were fitted to HMS Ark Royal, when she operated with a Phantom/Buccaneer/Gannet/Sea King/Wessex Air Wing. Thus Ark Royal would have looked a little larger!

Funnily enough, Jerry Kyd says QE is 290 metres long at 0:32....

(USNI News) 4 October 2018

A view of F-35B takeoff from the forward island bridge....

(ON THE ROGER) 2 October 2018 (recorded by RAF Air Marshal Stuart Atha)

RichardIC wrote:

Defiance wrote:You can find shots when QNLZ was in drydock in Scotland, with Illustrious sat in the adjacent dock, that does a good job of it for me!

Looking at that shot and remembering that at one time they were talking 300odd metres long, would it have fit in that dock or was another dock being planned to be used?

Poiuytrewq wrote:One is impressive, but two together is going to be awesome

image.jpg

Definitly agreed, IF we ever see them together like that and IF they buy enough planes and IF the RAF releases them for carrier service...

Did I leave the gas on when I left POW?