Reply With QuoteNot ready yet. I think she's on sea trials following her LPH refit.Originally Posted by Jdam1
Any reason why the Illustrious is not getting made the flag ship ?
Not ready yet. I think she's on sea trials following her LPH refit.
BTW, and sorry for going slightly off topic, did anyone else notice that CockneyJock, the fella on Forum Key Publishing CVF forum has thrown in the towel after being given quite a lot of stick by some chappie about the French and Dutch (?!) involvement in the design of QE? He's stopped adding pics and told them to F/O. Shame. He was getting some good, if long range images from across the Forth into Rosyth of the construction in progress.
If you're reading this mate, hope you're well and enjoying the views! Hope you feel able to add to this site. There's a little less venom here, and rather more professional comment, views and knowledge.
Last edited by CarrierFan2006; 10-22-2011 at 10:18 AM. Reason: typo
Actualy there is huge pressure on the government concerning the costs of Trident replacement,especialy with the Libdems being in the coalition.
Agreed they will not give up an independant nuclear capability,but some of the alternatives that have been proposed,even including a land based silo system are absolutely ludicrous. Believe me there are some very powerfull lobbyists who would love to see the end of the UK's nuclear deterent.
As for CVF I think as the arguement has gone on we should be more optimistic,the hints that are coming out of government I think are quite reassuring (at the moment).
QE is in a relatively advanced stage of construction i.e. in the construction dock and blocks being joined.
POW is now in its first stages of build,the EMALS system has been ordered for this vessel and things are at the moment proceeding apace.We have RN/RAF pilots being trained in the USA in the art of carriers ops.
We also have flight deck crews and flight ops personel doing likewise,the USA is doing us proud in this area.
Myself I am happy with the way things are proceeding at the moment,the CVF programme is far too advanced now to cancel,and with a little bit of luck in the future (financialy) we will have two CVF's in our inventory by the end of this decade.
As a bonus we then need some T26 to protect them,but that is another story and another thread.
Seconded, I miss his contributions on that forum.
Thanks for the info.
So is that us for the year, seems like all of this years major milestones have been reached
May I have a link for the key publishing thread please (I have tried a search).
Anything with news on UK defence programmes is always welcome.
(hopefully this isn't against forum rules)
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=92518
Thirded about Cockneyjock. There's no substitute for 1st hand photos (or enthusiasm such as his). I hope he joins us here on the dark side
I remember reading in that CVF thread that Cockneyjock tried signing up for this forums but he was having problems.
Admin, is there any way to sort out cockneyjocks registration so that he can post? I remember having a similar problem when I first started and it really was quite frustrating for me. For anyone who doesn't visit the CVF construction thread, this was posted by him yesterday;
"@Carrierfan2006, Imperialman, Jdam1 and of course happyslapper, I got your comments lads, thank you for that, as soon as they register me no probs."
I hope it's sorted quickly, cockneyjock is a very good contributor and his input here would improve the quality of the thread greatly in my opinion.
Navy unveils £108m training system
21 October 2011
The Royal Navy has unveiled its new £108m training system which could one day be used to train the crews of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.
The Maritime Composite Training System (MCTS) will initially be used to train crews for Type 45 and Type 42 Destroyers, as well as Type 23 frigates, with the potential to be used to simulate the systems on upcoming assault ships and carriers in future.
The banks of LCD screens at the two sites simulate the control systems on all existing British ship classes.
Installed at sites in Plymouth and Fareham, near Portsmouth, the system is expected to train around 1,000 personnel a year.
HMS Collingwood, in Fareham, will have three reconfigurable Warfare Team Trainers (WTT) and eight Electronic Classroom Trainers (ECT), while a facility in Devonport in Plymouth will have two WTTs and one ECT.
Peter Luff, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, said: "This new £108 million training system represents a ground-breaking move for the Royal Navy that will enhance its training capability for the future.
"It will enable personnel to train to the highest standard, utilising the latest technological developments.
"With this system, the UK's sailors will be some of the best prepared in the world, ready to take on the challenges of the future."
Chief of Defence Materiel, Bernard Gray, said: "This state-of-the-art system will greatly increase the effectiveness of surface ship warfare training.
"…With its ability to replicate all the current Destroyers, Frigates and Capital ships in the Fleet the Maritime Composite Training System provides great flexibility."
The MCTS contract with BAE Systems Mission Systems will run until 2018, and talks are already under way to plan training for the future aircraft carriers and Type 26 ships.
http://www.defencemanagement.com/new...y.asp?id=17798
BAE Systems PDF:
http://www.baesystems.com/BAEProd/gr...info_sheet.pdf
One of the first pics from Cammell Lairds
From CJ
Interesting, I would have thought they would be welded the 2nd block into place by now, It seems they want to have all the flight deck in place before they weld it rather than welding them one at a time.only 3 CB blocks are on LB03 still, no sponsons and the other day Goliath looked like it was about to lift up the 2nd CB03 block, IMHO an alignment issue perhaps
I guess they are in no hurry LB02 doesn’t arrive until March/April so they have plenty of time.
Great image of CATOBAR QE alongside Portsmouth, as you say this is beginning to look like a very impressive ship. Believe it has been confirmed that Queen Elizabeth will be completed without ski jump, which would ease future conversion, but do we know about the port side flight deck extension - ie angled deck? Would be a real pity if we had to cut more steel later, and to some could be an argument not to convert, ie to leave her as an LPH?She's really starting to come together now, can't wait to see her when the larger sections start being assembled! I've noticed amost of the older images and references to the STOVL versions of the ships have been removed. I have to say the CATOBAR images are really impressive and the design look like a true super carrier!
Its really a question of what babcock has been paid to do, they would need to order steel and make plans for manufacturing and fitting of the angled flight deck, it also depends on the design of the ship, it might already have the support needed for a angled flight deck as it was meant to be a possible future upgrade in which case its a simple matter of welding it on, if its not and the reason it was put in the future upgrade was because it required more work (and more money) then I seriously doubt the current design will take it.
At the end of the day its all a question of money, Babcok have plenty of time to add an angled flight deck to the carrier before its launch, its just with out the cats and traps there isn’t much point.
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