UK Defence Forum

(ON THE ROGER) 19 October 2018

HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08), Royal Navy. First entry to New York, October 2018. Aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, Westlant18, FOCFT. Vid by Royal Navy

(Save The Royal Navy) 19 October 2018

Quoting from the Metro, Captain Jerry Kyd says "We are the biggest carrier to go in there (New York) for about 50 years," he said – highlighting how the larger nuclear-powered Nimitz Class American carriers are forbidden.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/19/sailors- ... k-8056704/

Great shots and video, personally I thought they might have had the F35B's involved at some point but I guess other more pressing needs dictated not.

PhillyJ wrote:I thought they might have had the F35B's involved at some point but I guess other more pressing needs dictated not.

The two test F-35B's returned to Patuxent River before QE arrived in NYC.

I take it that's the end of Westlant 18? Do we know when the next round of testing will begin (F-35 or other)?

Little J wrote:I take it that's the end of Westlant 18? Do we know when the next round of testing will begin (F-35 or other)?

No, just a breather. The aircraft will be back on board toward the end on of the month for more testing including the boards favorite SRVLs.

HMS Queen Elizabeth has a Sea Harrier

SKB wrote:Quoting from the Metro, Captain Jerry Kyd says "We are the biggest carrier to go in there (New York) for about 50 years," he said – highlighting how the larger nuclear-powered Nimitz Class American carriers are forbidden.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/19/sailors- ... k-8056704/

Forbidden? Because of nuclear propulsion or?

abc123 wrote:

SKB wrote:Quoting from the Metro, Captain Jerry Kyd says "We are the biggest carrier to go in there (New York) for about 50 years," he said – highlighting how the larger nuclear-powered Nimitz Class American carriers are forbidden.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/19/sailors- ... k-8056704/

Forbidden? Because of nuclear propulsion or?

Nimitz class height above waterline is 215 feet (65.53m). Nominal clearance under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is 69.5m.

I suspect this is one of the reasons keeping the Nimitz class out of New York.

Having googled this earlier (other search engines are available ), there's an unwritten rule that no nuke power craft go into New York because a Mayor from the 80's or 90's didn't think it was safe (with such a large population).

Not sure much should be made of the V-22 and V-247 appearing in this...

https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/imps ... s-hms-que/

One carrier available 100% of the time, both available 40% of the time.

https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/imps ... s-hms-que/

... except that Liberty does not mean Freedom (it means 'permission') and there is already a Statue of Freedom on top of the Capitol building in D.C.

With only two Carriers their is no way to guarente one available 100% of the time.

On paper yes, reality depends on individual ship reliability, albeit modern production techniques do dramatically improve reliability and Gas Turbines are inherently safer and more reliable and easier to maintain/replace than say a steam plant. Individual class reliability difference is a growing thing of the past, Old Ark Royal v Eagle for example. Time will tell, but three would be better!

Digger22 wrote:Gas Turbines are inherently safer and more reliable and easier to maintain/replace than say a steam plant. Individual class reliability difference is a growing thing of the past, Old Ark Royal v Eagle for example. Time will tell, but three would be better!

True. The RN though are saying that 1 carrier will be available 100% of the time, 2 will be available 40% of the time. On a rough calculation 3 would mean 2 are guaranteed, with very occasionally 3 being available. The annoying thing is with the fall in cost due to lessons learned on PoW we could have had a 3rd with the money wasted by the treasury when they incurred a delay and Liam Fox at no additional cost....

Good luck manning a 3rd though...

Little J wrote:Good luck manning a 3rd though...

No chance of that, or putting aircraft on deck. But one would be in maintenance/mothballs at all times, just rotated in and out of service.

Timmymagic wrote:No chance of that, or putting aircraft on deck. But one would be in maintenance/mothballs at all times, just rotated in and out of service.

Which wouldn't have been a bad thing in my view. It would have enabled 2 carriers close to 100% availability set up for different operational modes whilst the 3rd was in repair/upgrade etc. It would have provided an insurance for 50 years of operation.

Seen on NavyLookout twitter that the QE will be going back out to sea soon, any one know what's involved in the second phase of developmental flying will entail?

Impressive work rate on DT-1 to get half of DT-2 completed! Ship and aircraft must be working well together.

Took the Staten Island Ferry on Tuesday which happily went straight past QECs mooring (is that the correct nautical term?).

Have loads of photos but not sure how to upload them from my laptop?

CR4ZYHOR5E wrote:Have loads of photos but not sure how to upload them from my laptop?

Quite easy to upload, theres an "Add Files" button in the chat/reply window you normally use. Once uploaded from your source, the photos become "attachments" and you can then "place inline" the photos/attachments to the normal chat/reply window - without the need to add the usual {img} {/img} inserts to pictures from other website sources.

I would advise uploading your photos as jpg or png files (you could re-save copies of them with MS Paint or PhotoShop) to save on memory size. Oh and make sure you have the photo orientated/rotated to the way you want it to appear here, theres no option to rotate them in the thread edit (threaditor?!).